Forbidden romance: Hinata & Shidomaru
by Shidomaru of the Bloody Mist
Summary: I was lost in a forest when I met the most beautiful girl of them all! Through a series of events, we ended up falling in love with each other... But our joy didn't last long, because everyone else in her village is against our union! The cover was made by KayDark09. Warning: The first three chapters contain foot fetish scenes.
1. Shidomaru

The Hidden Leaf Forest, inside of which lies hidden the village of ninjas known as "The Village Hidden in the Leaves". While it is usually a quiet place, especially since the end of 4th Great Shinobi War not long ago, it is in this very forest where our story begins.

A tired traveler was silently walking along a narrow path among the trees. He was a young man about 19 or 20 years old, 170cm tall and with black hair. His eyes and eyebrows resembled those of Dragon Ball Z's character Vegeta, with an angry and seemingly evil look, only his eyes were dark brown in color instead of black. While his outfit was very ninja-like, he didn't look like the more modern ninjas of the Naruto series, but his blue clothes resembled more closely what one would normally expect from a ninja (except he had no mask), and his boots looked somewhat like what one of Sosuke Aizen's arrancars would use. His ninja tool bag was on his right leg, meaning he was right-handed. He also wore four thin metal plates, two protecting his forearms and two protecting his legs from the knees down. Finally, his headband showed the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Mist, obviously meaning this person wasn't from around these parts.

His slow pace and how he struggled to push aside the shrubbery while walking aimlessly through the woods showed how tired he was, and he was seemingly low on supplies too. He finally came to a clearing in the forest with a lake on it. It was evening and this tired Hidden Mist shinobi seemed ready to give up when something suddenly called his attention…

"What the f…?" said the young Hidden Mist ninja, his eyes widely opened, as in shock…

It turned out there was someone at the other side of the lake, sitting on a thick branch of a tree. The young Mist ninja was greatly amazed. It was the most beautiful girl in the whole world! Right in front of him!

"This can't… This must be some genjutsu!" said the young Mist shinobi, amazed yet afraid at such immense beauty…

Unknown to him, the beautiful girl sitting on that thick tree branch was none other than Hinata Hyuga, well known by Naruto fans so she needs no description. She seemed completely immersed in her thoughts, her cute white eyes looked sad, and she was barefoot for some reason, each of her legs hanging from a different side of the branch in which Hinata was sitting…

"This is surely someone's trap…" the Mist ninja thought to himself. "There's only one way to find out."

Afraid but curious, this Mist shinobi cautiously went underwater and quietly approached Hinata from there, since water is a terrain advantage to Hidden Mist ninjas. Since Hinata was so immersed in her seemingly sad thoughts, the Mist ninja was able to sneak up on her unnoticed and, silently but quickly, he moved to the tree where Hinata was sitting and hid on the other side of the trunk…

"I'm not that stupid" he thought while cautiously peeping from behind the tree trunk. "I'm indeed quite good at unmasking genjutsu. If I see her from close enough, I'll see that beautiful girl is not real… It is impossible for a girl this beautiful to exist in the first place!"

The young Mist shinobi carefully watched Hinata and analyzed the situation, his mind already working on an action plan. After a minute he grinned, showing the typical carnivore teeth that characterize Hidden Mist shinobis such as Zabuza, Kisame, Suigetsu, etc. In his particular case, this young shinobi was missing what would be his upper-right fang, leaving a small hole in his smile…

"Yeah, I'll do that…" he thought to himself with a somewhat evil grin, although blushing "If she likes it, then she's a genjutsu, for no girl has ever allowed me to do _that_ to her… Okay, here we go!"

The thick tree branch on which Hinata was sitting wasn't that high. In fact, the Mist ninja could barely stand up straight under it. Hinata's hanging bare feet were well in his reach. Blushing and sweating out of tension, the young male ninja _very_ slowly moved his hand closer and closer to Hinata's right foot sole until the distance between her foot and his fingertips was barely five centimeters… "Now!"

In a somewhat odd and unexpected turn of events, the young male ninja tickled Hinata's foot briefly. Hinata turned out to be _very_ sensitive to tickling, so much in fact that she not only screamed from the surprise, but the young Hidden Mist shinobi could tell she was about to fall off the tree branch…

"Holy shit!" said the Mist ninja, startled at this sudden turn of events. Then the young ninja quickly positioned himself below Hinata so she would fall on top of him, absorbing the impact of Hinata's fall to prevent her from getting hurt. The young male ninja now lied on the floor with a confused Hinata on top of him…

"She's actually _very_ real…" the young Mist ninja said, sitting up with an expression of hurt. Seeing she had landed on someone, Hinata gasped in surprise and worry…

"I-I'm sorry! Um…Are you ok?" she asked…

"My fault…" the young Mist ninja answered. "I tickled you, but I thought you'd stay on the branch."

Hinata became a bit scared and embarrassed and, after hesitating, she asked "Um…Why did you tickle me?"

The young male ninja blushed and turned his gaze away from Hinata…

"…I thought you were a genjutsu, so I wanted to make sure." he said. "…Besides, your feet are so cute, so I wasn't quite able to resist the temptation anyway."

A very scared Hinata slapped the Mist ninja and then quickly retreated, making sure to keep her distance from him. The Mist ninja angrily got up…"Why the hell did you do that?" he exclaimed. "B-because… Because you're a pervert!" an embarrassed and scared Hinata replied…

The young ninja then laid his hand on the cheek where he had received the slap…

"Tsk… The hatred put in that slap hurt me more than the slap itself…" he muttered. "Fine, I'll leave you alone."

The young shinobi went away in the direction he had come from, now walking on the surface of the water like the ninjas of the Naruto world often do. Hinata watched him until he was far away, then she stood up and went her own way. Night had fallen, but our Hidden Mist shinobi boy found himself unable to sleep. He couldn't stop thinking of Hinata and her cute, ticklish feet…

"I could have sworn she wasn't real…" he was thinking to himself. "She's way too beautiful! You only see these in manga and anime… and her feet… That grade of ticklishness is unreal!"

The young ninja then looked at his right hand, with which he had tickled Hinata's foot…

"Me and my stupid case of podophilia…" he thought to himself with an expression of disgust "Who am I trying to fool? I just jumped on an opportunity to satisfy my foot-tickling fetish… I've fallen so low since I fled my village years ago…"

Unable to resist anymore, he got up and walked all the way back to the lake until he reached the bushes. What he found left him even more stunned than before. "This can't be!" he thought…

Hinata was back, and most surprising of it all is that she was naked, standing on the surface of the lake. Suddenly, she started to dance ballet right on top of the lake's surface. The water started to flow along with Hinata's chakra. Hinata's graceful, gentle moves, along with the many drops of water that flowed around her with her every move, left our ninja boy fascinated. He couldn't have taken his eyes off her beautiful body even if he had tried (which he didn't, anyway), and with Hinata having long hair it looked even better than it had looked three years ago (Naruto filler episode 148) when her hair was short. The boy from the Hidden Mist spent the whole time there, immobile as if he had fallen in the deepest of genjutsu. But it was the real thing, Hinata's beauty at its maximum expression! His heart was pounding inside his chest before such absurdly immense amount of beauty, and his mind was puzzled about how such a woman could possibly exist in the world. When Hinata got tired, she walked off the lake, dried herself with a towel, put her clothes back on and left. The young Hidden Mist boy laid himself on the ground right where he was, staring at the starry night sky, still amazed at what he had just seen. He didn't sleep that night. The sun had risen again and he patiently waited. Eventually she was back there, again. He could see Hinata in the distance…

"If I approach her again, she might get mad at me…" he carefully thought. "I'd better think of another plan…"

And so, the 19 or 20 year-old Mist shinobi watched Hinata from afar, for many days, he stalked her every time she came to this part of the woods (we could say she was getting a taste of her own medicine, heh!). He watched her as she took off her shoes and timidly approached the river, and when she seemed to doubt about whether to step on the water or not, she suddenly gathered courage and jumped into the water…

"Aaah, aaah! It's cold!" she exclaimed as she splashed her feet into the water in a very feminine way, as if trying to avoid it. The ninja boy watching her changed his normally angry look into a tender one as he blushed…

"She's really feminine… way _too_ feminine. Even for a girl… I love that..." the Hidden Mist boy thought to himself…

After Hinata was done bathing her beautiful feet on the cold river water, she walked back to her shoes and put them back on…

"How ironic… She's _exactly_ as I like 'em… long straight dark hair, feminine body, sweet disposition… and shoes that almost completely reveal her beautiful ticklish feet!" the young male ninja thought, blushing and looking at the beautiful Hinata, his eyes already showing affection towards her…

Unknown to our young boy in love, Hinata had long been aware of his presence. She liked to stalk, but didn't like being stalked…

"He's stalking me…" Hinata thought to herself. "A shinobi from a foreign village is watching my every move. He's up to something…"

That same day, Hinata was sitting by a tree and opened a bag, from where she took out a cinnamon roll, her favorite food, and started eating it. Of course, our boy was still watching her from what he thought was a safe distance, well-hidden in a small pond, but not aware of Hinata's exceptional sight provided by her Byakugan…

"Damn! I even like the way she eats!" he was thinking to himself.

Hinata finally ate the last morsel of that cinnamon roll and swallowed it, and after cleaning her mouth and hands with a white hankerchief, she then performed a hand sign… "Byakugan!"

Then Hinata's veins around her pupil-less white eyes began to bulge and pupil outlines appeared on her eyes. In this state, Hinata's field of vision became almost 360 degrees and she could not only see through things, but she easily saw the Hidden Mist ninja's chakra inside a small pond…

"I know you're there…" she said in a serious tone, but as you may already know, Hinata always speaks in a very soft voice, which at that distance couldn't be heard by the young Mist shinobi who was stalking her… "I can see you… It's no use hiding any longer." she insisted…

But with her sweet and extremely soft tone of voice her stalker still couldn't hear her, so Hinata very carefully and subtly took off her left shoe, then she threw it at the small pond where her stalker was hiding, bonking him right over the head. The young Hidden Mist ninja raised from the pond, showing that it was actually himself in melted form, a typical jutsu of Hidden Mist ninjas. After getting up the boy picked up Hinata's thrown shoe and holded it in his hand as he stared at it…

"Of all things, you just had to throw me something that your beautiful little foot has been into…" the young Mist ninja said to Hinata, who got up in order to confront her stalker…

"Next time it'll be shuriken." She threatened in a serious tone.

"Why hasn't it been shuriken _this_ time?" the young Mist ninja replied in an even more serious tone.

Hinata found herself surprised at what the stalking boy had just said. The Mist ninja lowered his head with a sad look in his eyes and he blushed…

"You hate me, don't you? ...Then it'd be ok if you killed me" he said in a rather sad tone…

"No! Killing is wrong!" Hinata replied, and our stalking ninja boy found himself even more surprised…

"_What_? …She hates me but she would _still_ spare my life? …How… tender…" the surprised young Hidden Mist ninja thought to himself…

The mist shinobi then raised his face again and looked at Hinata's eyes, still beautiful even with the Byakugan active…

"Heh! That's a leaf ninja for you! Your culture is really so much different from ours…" said the young mist ninja. "It suits you well, though."

Hinata then deactivated her Byakugan…

"I-If you have nothing else to say… then I'm leaving." Hinata said to the young male ninja and, despite having only one shoe on, she tried to leave anyway…

"_Hey_!" the Mist shinobi shouted. Hinata gasped and turned around, startled…

"Your shoe…!" he said while showing Hinata her own shoe…

"You can keep it… I-It's not like I'm going to put it on again now that you touched it." Hinata replied.

"What the f…? Why, you…?" said the confused ninja boy and then he walked towards Hinata, unintentionally causing the frightened ninja girl to run away…

"Where the fuck are you going?" the ninja boy screamed, worried about Hinata.

The Mist ninja quickly got on pursuit of the object of his affections. They both swiftly jumped among the tree branches with the agility ninjas are known for…

"_Stop_ running around barefoot like that!" he shouted to her. "You can end up hurting yourself!"

Believing the Mist ninja to be a threat, Hinata didn't listen to him and tried to flee towards her Hidden Leaf Village, but she was as unlucky as always and ended up stepping on a lost shuriken long ago thrown into one of the branches (as ninjas don't always recover the shuriken with which they throw and miss) with the left foot, the one she didn't have a shoe on. The Mist ninja saw her lose balance and fall as she screams…

"Damn!" he exclaimed as he descended to ground level and quickly ran in order to be below her and absorb the impact of her fall again…

"S-Sorry!" a worried Hinata apologized to him…

"Ouch" the young Hidden Mist ninja uttered, sitting up with an expression of hurt, again. "…You should already know you can't go around barefoot in a place like this!"

"I-I'm sorry…" said Hinata as she turned her gaze away, ashamed…

The Hidden Mist ninja then got out from below Hinata's beautiful body…

"Let me see…" he said…

He then grabbed Hinata by the left foot and checked her bleeding sole. It was not a serious wound at all, but it was bleeding. As he held Hinata's foot with his left hand to prevent her from trying to escape, the Mist shinobi used his other hand to try to rip off the left sleeve of his shirt. He wasn't very strong at all to rip off the strong fabric of a cloth made for battle, but he quickly took out a kunai and with it he made a little opening in his left sleeve so he could then rip it off with his hand, then he used it as a bandage for Hinata's wounded foot sole…

"Um… Thank you." Hinata said, blushing…

Just when he had finished attending to Hinata's wound and was unconsciously smiling with pleasure at the good deed he had just done to her, still holding her foot but now gently with affection, and an embarrassed, blushing Hinata was looking at him with a smile, suddenly Kiba and Akamaru jumped out from the bushes and attacked the Hidden Mist shinobi, biting on him and restraining him…

"_Aaaahh_! You fuckin' bastards!" the Mist ninja screamed furiously and in pain…

"Are you all right, Hinata?" Kiba hurriedly asked. Shino then came out from the bushes as well, though much more quietly…

"We heard you scream and came as fast as we could." Shino said…

"It was this creep, wasn't he?" Kiba said, looking at the Mist ninja with hatred. "What did he do to you?"

Shino then walked over and picked up the kunai the young Mist ninja had left on the floor which he had used in order tear off his sleeve…

"He attacked you, didn't he?" Shino inquired…

"Stop! Don't hurt him!" Hinata pleaded. Kiba, Shino and Akamaru all were surprised…

"I-I got hurt while jumping through the tree branches…" Hinata explained. "This person attended to my wound… H-He even tore off his sleeve to use as a bandage."

Kiba and Shino then noticed that it was indeed true, as the Mist ninja's sleeve was torn off and it was around Hinata's left foot as a bandage for her wound. Kiba and Akamaru let go of him, although reluctantly…

"We apologize to you…" said Shino "It was just a misunderstanding."

"Kiba-kun! P-Please apologize too!" Hinata said…

"We're sorry…" Kiba reluctantly replied, turning his gaze away "Right, Akamaru?" he then said to his dog. Akamaru made a noise in response to Kiba.

Despite the apologies, the Mist ninja looked angry anyway. Hinata then turned her attention to the mysterious boy who had saved her, timidly avoiding to look at his eyes while doing her typical fiddling with her fingers…

"Um…" she doubtfully uttered, trying to find something appropriate to say…

"Here…" said the young Hidden Mist ninja while handing Hinata's shoe back to her. Hinata first gasped in surprise, but then took her shoe back…

"T-Thank you…" said a blushing Hinata. "You're welcome." The young male ninja answered…

"Um… Etto…" muttered Hinata, trying to say something…

"Shidomaru…" the young Hidden Mist ninja suddenly said. "My name is Shidomaru."

"I-I am Hinata…" Hinata timidly answered…

"Hinata…" Shidomaru thought to himself. "What a cute name… it's rather fitting…"

Kiba and Shino both helped Hinata get up…

"We should take you to Sakura so you can completely heal that wound." Kiba told Hinata…

"I-I'm fine…" Hinata replied…

"It's best to make sure. Better safe than sorry." said Shino, he then turned his attention to Shidomaru…

"We're going to take care of her now. Thanks for helping her." Shino said to him. Kiba still looked at Shidomaru with distrust, and Shidomaru also looked at Kiba, Shino and Akamaru with equal skepticism. The three members of Team 8 walked away, with Kiba carrying Hinata on his back, and they left Shidomaru alone once more. Shidomaru got up and laid his back on the nearest tree, looking towards the sky almost totally obscured by the dense forest, then he looked at his hands…

"Somehow… I did it…" Shidomaru was thinking to himself. "I somehow managed to get close to her… Hinata…"

"Shidomaru…" was Hinata thinking to herself as Kiba carried her…

A few days later, Shidomaru seemed to have stopped wandering around aimlessly and he had somehow managed to build himself a little improvised hideout in a hard-to-find spot. He came out from it unexplainably with a new shirt exactly like the one he had torn the left sleeve of…

"Weather in the Land of Fire sure is hot…" he complained. "It's far different from my native Land of Water…"

Shidomaru then made his way to the spot where he had first found Hinata and where he had stalked her so much. But now he openly showed himself there. No one else seemed to be there, but Shidomaru carefully checked the surroundings, and then he headed in a direction. Hinata was not there, but she was hiding behind a tree, watching as Shidomaru walked away, and relaxed when he seemed out of range. Then all of a sudden, she felt a tickling sensation on her right foot (remember her shoes reveal most of her feet, so no real need to take off her shoe to tickle her unless you're trying to tickle in her sole) and gasped, startled. She quickly turned around to find Shidomaru crouching right beside her…

"W-What…?" the scared ninja girl nervously gasped…

"That one was a Yukibunshin." explained Shidomaru as he stood up…

"Yukibunshin?" Hinata asked…

"Snow Clone, though it doesn't last very long in this weather." Shidomaru explained…

"Oh…" Hinata said to indicate she understood Shidomaru's explanation.

"Looks like my ninjutsu isn't as effective in hot lands such as this, but it also seems to work well on opponents that are accustomed to these hot temperatures, so things are balanced, in a way." said Shidomaru while looking at his own right hand…

"Um… What is your ninjutsu?" Hinata asked out of curiosity. Shidomaru then performed a hand sign. The water present in the air condensed and gathered, and then it froze and took the form of an ice flower…

"Ice is my power." Shidomaru stated. "It's the most beautiful of all elements." he added.

Shidomaru then tried to give the ice flower to Hinata, but Hinata blushed, gasped and retreated in embarrassment…

"Don't be afraid!" a disappointed Shidomaru exclaimed "It's just a flower made of ice! It's as ephemeral as a real one anyway…"

Hinata turned her gaze away and hid the lower portion of her face with her hands…

"I see…" said Shidomaru, becoming saddened. "I made a mistake."

Shidomaru then dispelled the ice flower and turned away sadly…

"I'm deeply sorry… Hinata…" Shidomaru said in a sad tone. "Uh…Um…" Hinata tried to find something to say as Shidomaru tried to walk away from her, but she gave up on her attempt to talk to Shidomaru and turned her gaze away from him again…

"I'm listening." Shidomaru said, suddenly stopping. Hinata was surprised that Shidomaru was actually paying attention to her, and smiled because of it. Not long after, both were sitting in front of each other on that clearing in the forest…

"N-Not many people let me finish when I talk." Hinata said…

"I've heard that you women are in permanent need to express their feelings. It has something to do with the biology of your brains, apparently. The bridge between both hemispheres of your brain is supposedly wider than mine, so you use your whole brain for both reason and emotions." explained Shidomaru…

"Um… You seem to be very smart." Hinata told him…

"Nah…" Shidomaru said while gazing sideways. "Although my favorite job is assassination, my real strength is actually information gathering. That's why I seem so knowledgeable." he explained to her.

Hinata quickly became afraid of Shidomaru because of his comment about his favorite job being assassination…

"Scared you 'cause I said I like to kill people?" said Shidomaru, looking at Hinata with the corner of his eye. "...Rather typical for a Leaf ninja, especially a kind-hearted sweet girl such as you…"

Hinata was now both scared and embarrassed…

"…But I don't like to hide the truth about myself…" Shidomaru continued. "Seems stupid to think like that considering I'm a ninja, huh?"

"Um… Why do you like killing?" a scared Hinata timidly asked…

"Power…" Shidomaru answered in a somewhat sinister tone. "That's the whole reason why I became a shinobi in the first place."

"P-Power?" a horrified Hinata said…

"Yeah, power…" continued Shidomaru, getting progressively carried away. "I wanna punish every evil person in this world! If I were strong enough, I'd crush anyone who would dare to hurt me or my beloved ones!"

Hinata remained silent, seemingly horrified at Shidomaru's claims…

"…That's what I'd like to say, but I have no beloved ones to protect, so I've only fought for myself all these years." said Shidomaru, suddenly settling down…

"Um… Aren't you from a shinobi village?" Hinata asked him…

"Isn't it suspicious to find a Hidden Mist shinobi wandering around in the Hidden Leaf Forest?" he replied. "I left that stupid village, years ago…"

"Um… D-Don't you miss your friends?" said a saddened Hinata while timidly turning her gaze away from Shidomaru…

"What friends?" a sad Shidomaru suddenly sighed. Hinata gasped, surprised to find that Shidomaru was such a lonely person…

"I-I'm sorry! I didn't know!" she nervously tried to apologize…

"Can't blame you. You're from the Leaf, so you guys are all the happy bunch, with your pacifist ideas and such. You're all pretty little friends, so it's practically the opposite from 'Bloody Mist'" said Shidomaru…

"Just what do you think that we Leaf ninja are?" Hinata suddenly said in a serious voice…

"Am I wrong?" asked Shidomaru in an incredulous tone…

"Y-Yes! We're not that blind to reality!" Hinata exclaimed. "Um…We do have both happy moments and sad moments! We laugh, we cry, we get angry and everything else… Just like… Just like every other person! We're human too!"

"Human, huh?" said Shidomaru, lowering his face with a sad look "...Maybe being so human is what makes you people so different from the rest of shinobi nations."

"You're a human too… I-I know it." Hinata said to him.

"Really? Can you call me human after hearing me say that I like to kill people?" Shidomaru retorted sarcastically…

"Um…" said Hinata, afraid and turning her gaze away from Shidomaru again. Shidomaru remained silent, intending to listen to Hinata's every word. Hinata tried to muster as much courage as she could before speaking…

"Y-You said that you want to punish someone…" she then said. "You also talked about protecting the ones you love… We protect our loved ones too, even if we're sometimes forced to take our enemies' lives… but you…Um…"

"Please go on…" Shidomaru invited her to continue talking…

"…H-Has someone done something bad to you?" Hinata asked. Shidomaru then had a very brief flashback, with memories of himself lying on the ground, severely beaten and in the middle of a fire, his teammates nowhere to be seen, and he also remembered a person with the Byakugan. The flashback ended there…

"I'm seeking revenge…" Shidomaru finally admitted in a grim tone…

"Please _don't_!" Hinata interrupted, not wanting to hear the rest of Shidomaru's phrase. Shidomaru watched in shock as Hinata suddenly started crying…

"…One of us once fled our village, seeking revenge…" she cried. "During those years, he became so cold, twisted and ruthless… He cut all of his bonds with us, his friends… And a person who is very important to me suffered the worst things as he tried to fulfill his promise to take our friend back to our village… This very important person couldn't save him… He was the person who loved him the most among all of us! When I saw him so depressed… I…"

"Enough… Hinata…" said Shidomaru with a sad and trembling voice. Hinata looked at a sad Shidomaru whose eyes had become dampened by his own tears. He then came close to Hinata, took out a handkerchief and started to gently wipe her tears from her face…

"Don't cry, Hinata… it makes me sad…" he told her…

With her beautiful white eyes still crying, Hinata stared at Shidomaru with amazement, and of course she was blushing…

"Who is this Shidomaru person?" she thought to herself. "...He looks cold, like ice… but his actions definitely reveal what's inside him… W-What's this feeling? ...What's… happening to me?"

Shidomaru had finally finished wiping Hinata's tears...

"I'm sorry…" he sadly apologized. "I didn't intend to make you cry…"

"I… I know we've just recently met… but please, I want you to promise me something…" said Hinata. Shidomaru opened his eyes widely in surprise…

"Promise me…" said Hinata, avoiding looking at Shidomaru's eyes. "No matter what happens… that you'll _never ever_ get lost in the darkness of revenge… I you someday make a lot of friends, stay with them… treasure them… and never abandon them…"

"Er… Hinata, I…" said Shidomaru, blinking in confusion…

"Promise!" urged Hinata, suddenly turning towards Shidomaru with her little finger up. Shidomaru doubted for a second, but then he smiled and blushed…

"We're not married yet and she's already sweet-talking me into doing whatever she wants… But I don't mind as long as she stays this cute…" Shidomaru thought to himself. He then lifted his little finger too and both little fingers hooked on each other, which symbolizes a promise that has been done. Hinata blushed and smiled at him for agreeing to the promise…

"My name is Shidomaru… I'm a rogue ninja who fled the Hidden Mist Village, seeking revenge… but I fell in love… I'm in love with you… Hinata…" Shidomaru thought to himself as he delighted himself in Hinata's smile…


	2. Hinata

A few days later, back at the newly rebuilt Village Hidden in the Leaves, Hinata was in her room, humming in a rather unusual good mood as she packed everything she needed and prepared to go out of her house. Not much later she was seen meeting with Kiba, Shino and Akamaru under a tree…

"Sorry for being late, Kiba-kun, Shino-kun." Hinata said to them…

"Nah… Don't worry about it." Kiba answered, though not in such a good mood. "C'mon, let's go to Kurenai-sensei's."

Hinata nodded and Team 8 went to see their still-pregnant sensei, whose belly had really grown since the last time we had seen her…

"Wow… I-It's grown so much…" Hinata said with a smile…

"She will probably have her baby soon." Shino guessed…

Hinata then walked over right in front of where her pregnant sensei was sitting, crouched down and directed her attention to the infant inside Kurenai's belly…

"Byakugan." Said Hinata while activating said ability. With it she could perfectly see the unborn child inside Kurenai. Hinata pleasantly smiled as she looked at it…

"Lucky you, Hinata." said Kiba. "You get to see him before any of us."

"She has an advantage with her Byakugan." said Shino…

"Um… H-Hello, little one…" said Hinata to the unborn baby, then she started to gently caress Kurenai's belly, with the intention of caressing the baby…

"…I-I'm Hinata." she continued talking to the unborn baby. "I… etto… I'll be your friend… I'm going to play with you, once you're born…"

With her Byakugan, Hinata could see the baby do a sudden kicking movement, so she got startled and gasped as she moved away from Kurenai's belly…

"He kicked, didn't he?" said Kurenai with a smile…

Hinata nodded and everyone there looked happy about the new life that would be born someday soon…

"Want some tea?" Kurenai invited…

"I-I'll prepare it." said Hinata while standing up.

So they spent the afternoon enjoying themselves. After that, Kiba, Akamaru and Shino had gone off somewhere, giving Hinata and Kurenai some time alone…

"You said you wanted to talk to me in private, right?" said Kurenai. Fiddling with her fingers as she blushed, as usual, Hinata nodded…

"Well, we've been good friends for years, haven't we? You can always talk to me without any fears…" Kurenai reassured. "Well? What is it?" she then asked…

"Um… I… I met someone the last week…" said Hinata, still fiddling with her fingers and blushing, avoiding to look at Kurenai's eyes…

"Really? Who was it?" said a surprised Kurenai…

"I met a boy in the forest last week…" Hinata confessed…

"So? Do you like him?" said Kurenai in a joking tone…

"_N-No_! T-That's not…!" an embarrassed Hinata replied…

"Easy. I'm just kidding." said Kurenai to calm Hinata down. "Go on, please." she then invited. Still embarrassed, Hinata turned her gaze away…

"Um… H-He is… not from our village…" Hinata said. Kurenai's look turned serious as she paid more attention to what Hinata was saying. "…H-He's… He's a shinobi from the Hidden Mist." Hinata added…

"A shinobi from the Hidden Mist Village? What was he doing there?" Kurenai asked in surprise…

"I-I don't know… I got hurt while in the forest, and he aided me…" Hinata explained. "He looks cold in the outside, but… B-But he… somehow…"

"I don't want to startle you, but… Well, it might be a trap." Kurenai warned. Hinata gasped in surprise. "A… t-trap?" she asked with fear…

"It's very common to feign kindness in order to get close to someone. It's a basic tactic used by many shinobi spies. I even used it myself sometimes." Kurenai explained to her student. Hinata lowered her face with a saddened expression, uttering an "Mm…" Seeing Hinata getting depressed, Kurenai put on a smile intending to cheer Hinata up…

"Then again, his mission might have nothing to do with you at all. Maybe he just likes you." said Kurenai.

"R-Really?" said a surprised, blushing Hinata as she raised her face and looked at Kurenai's eyes…

"We can't really tell... Take what I say with a grain of salt, okay?" Kurenai advised…

"H-He said he had fled his village…" said Hinata, lowering her face again "He seems to be seeking to punish someone…"

"Another avenger, huh? ...We've had enough bad experiences with people like that in our village… Especially him…" answered Kurenai…

"True…" said Hinata while nodding Then they both remained silent for some seconds…

"Kurenai-sensei…" Hinata then said…

"Hmm?" answered Kurenai to indicate that she was paying attention…

"If he follows that path… he'll end up destroying himself and the ones he loves…" said a saddened Hinata…

"…And you want to help him out of it, right?" said Kurenai. Hinata gasped in surprise and blushed again. Kurenai sighed…

"I don't want you to get your hopes _too_ high like last time and get heart-broken again…" Kurenai sincerely told Hinata "But my suppositions have no solid base yet, so he might be a good person… I advise caution. Don't rush. Get to know him gradually and see how it develops… Who knows? He might turn out to be your future boyfriend."

"Kurenai-sensei!" screamed an embarrassed Hinata…

"Calm down! I'm joking!" said Kurenai. Then Kiba's voice sounded outside. "Hinata! We gotta go!"

"As always, we'll keep this conversation secret, just between you and me. You can always trust me." said Kurenai with a wink to Hinata. Hinata nodded with a smile before going off with Kiba, Shino and Akamaru. The next day, Hinata went to her usual relaxing spot in the clearing of the forest when a brown rabbit desperately ran towards her. Reacting quickly, Hinata crouched down and welcomed it into her arms. Hinata looked at the rabbit and found it was hurt and bleeding…

"Oh, you're hurt! Poor little bunny!" said Hinata with pity "...Who would do something so cruel?"

Shidomaru suddenly entered the clearing with a kunai in hand and stopped when he saw Hinata hugging the rabbit. Hinata noticed the kunai had some blood in it…

"W-What are you doing?" said an angry Hinata…

"I'm hunting for my lunch! It's mid-day!" Shidomaru explained. He then stored the kunai back into the tool bag and turned away 90 degrees. "Forget it… Once a kind girl finds a wounded rabbit, it becomes impossible to hunt it."

"Y-You're a shinobi." Hinata said skeptically. "You should have food supplies of your own."

"I ran out of supplies before entering this forest. I've survived all these days by hunting deer, rabbits and similar prey… Hey! We're still animals, you know!" said Shidomaru…

"I-If I bring you something to eat, will you let this poor rabbit be?" said Hinata…

"Would you…? Would you really do that for me?" asked a surprised Shidomaru…

"Um… I don't want to see this poor little rabbit die before my eyes… P-Please… spare his life." said Hinata, looking at the wounded rabbit with pity. Shidomaru closed his eyes and sighed…

"Can't say no to a girl this sweet… We'll do it your way." Shidomaru said, and then he sat down on the grass… "I'll wait for you."

Without saying a word, Hinata went away with the wounded rabbit still in her arms. About half an hour later she came back to the clearing with a picnic basket. She didn't directly enter the clearing, but instead hid behind a tree and spied on Shidomaru from there. She saw Shidomaru using his kunai to carve a sculpture in ice that he probably had created with his ninjutsu. She was shocked to find that Shidomaru was actually trying to make an ice sculpture of her…

"Is that… me?" Hinata thought to herself, embarrassed "…He likes me that much?"

Hinata beholded in embarrassment as Shidomaru hugged his newly finished ice sculpture… "Hinata… She's so beautiful… I wish I could…" he said.

Hinata blushed and covered her mouth with her hand when she saw Shidomaru kiss and caress the ice sculpture of her…

"Oh, Hinata! Hinata-chan… Awww, don't be afraid, sweetie. I'm not gonna hurt you. I just wanna kiss you, and hug you, and caress you… and tickle you…" was Shidomaru saying to the ice sculpture, unaware that Hinata was nearby…

And so Shidomaru played with his ice doll, unaware that the real Hinata had been watching him all along. He didn't take much longer to figure it out, though …

"Aah! ...When did you come back?" he exclaimed, startled…

"Um… Actually, I've been here for a while…" said Hinata, embarrassed. Shidomaru then became embarrassed too. "Uh… Ahem! Well, I…" he said while trying to hide his embarrassment…

"I-Is that me?" Hinata said, pointing with the finger towards the ice sculpture…

"Well, yeah…Turns out that…uh…" answered Shidomaru, turning his gaze away and blushing…

"She's about three times prettier than the real thing!" exclaimed Hinata, turning her gaze away too as well as blushing…

"Don't be so humble! I'm not that good of a sculptor!" Shidomaru answered, turning his gaze back to Hinata. She stayed silent, too embarrassed to look at Shidomaru or the ice sculpture…

"More importantly… I'm hungry." said Shidomaru suddenly. Hinata then gasped as she "woke up" and remembered she had brought a basket with her. She entered the clearing, laid a picnic carpet on the grass and put the basket on it. Then she took off her shoes in order to step on the picnic carpet without dirtying it, something Shidomaru watched with fascination, as Hinata's beautiful feet got out of her shoes in what seemed to be slow-motion to him as his own imagination embellished the scene…

"W-What's wrong?" said Hinata, a bit scared. Shidomaru "woke up" suddenly…

"D-Do I have something on my feet?" said Hinata, a bit scared and blushing. "...I-I mean… You're staring at my feet so…"

"Uh… Did I tell you already that you've got cute feet?" said Shidomaru, turning his gaze away and blushing…

"I-I think so…" said Hinata, embarrassed and trying to cover one foot with the other…

"Sorry… I didn't mean to hurt your feelings…" said a saddened Shidomaru…

"Don't worry!" said Hinata as she quickly sat down in a way such that Shidomaru couldn't see her feet from where he was. Shidomaru took his shoes off too and sat on the picnic carpet…

"So? ...What did you bring?" he asked, so Hinata opened the basket…

"Um… Diverse sandwiches… I tried to make something quick so you didn't have to wait much." She said to him…

"I hope none of them have cheese on them…" said Shidomaru

"Don't you like cheese?" said Hinata in surprise. "That's weird! ...I mean… um… Everyone likes cheese!"

"Well, I'm not like "everyone". I don't like cheese." Shidomaru replied…

"But you like feet…" said Hinata with a rather skeptical look…

"I don't relate feet to cheese!" said Shidomaru, angered in a comical fashion, he then turned his gaze away in annoyance "…It's a… personal matter. Don't ask." he said in an annoyed tone…

Hinata searched the basket and pulled out a sandwich…"This one doesn't have cheese." she said while handing the sandwich to Shidomaru…

"What is it?" asked Shidomaru while taking the sandwich and examining it closely…

"It's a new type of poison." said Hinata sarcastically due to Shidomaru's exaggerated cautiousness. Shidomaru looked at Hinata with a weird look…

"…It's chicken." Hinata said. Shidomaru then proceeded to eat…

"The taste of a lunch hand-made by a woman… I missed it…" Shidomaru sincerely admitted. Hinata then glanced to Shidomaru with a smile, apparently flattered by Shidomaru's comment. Another half hour later and they both were already satisfied…

"Um… Do you want another one?" Hinata invited. "No, thanks. That's enough." Shidomaru answered. Hinata then closed the picnic basket…

"Um… about that statue of me…" said Hinata…

"Just as you witnessed…" said Shidomaru, turning his gaze away and lowering his head. He then looked at Hinata with the corner of his eye…

"If you wanna run away scared, this'd be a good moment, don't you think?" he said, but Hinata shook her head in denial. "I'm not going to run away." She said to him.

"Really? ...Aren't you afraid of being kissed, hugged and caressed by a man you barely know?" Shidomaru asked incredulously…

"Um… Yes, I am…" Hinata said while avoiding Shidomaru's eyes. "But… Would you… hurt me?"

"Heh! ...Most girls assume that I will without asking me that question first!" Shidomaru exclaimed…

"Does that mean yes or no?" questioned Hinata while looking at Shidomaru with the corner of her eye…

"You're cute…" said Shidomaru with a saddened look "Too cute…I think the meanest thing I'd do to a girl like you is…" Shidomaru then blushed and smiled slightly. "…tickling your feet." he finally concluded.

Hinata became scared again, moving some millimeters away from Shidomaru, especially trying to keep her feet away from him…

"I know… I understand that you're so afraid of me…" Shidomaru said, but Hinata again shook her head in denial…

"It's just the opposite… Very few people are really this nice to me." She said to him.

"I don't believe you." said Shidomaru…

"I-It's true!" said Hinata…

"I bet you're the most popular girl in your village…" Shidomaru said next…

"W-What nonsense are you saying?" replied Hinata in embarrassment…

"You _are_ so beautiful after all!" Shidomaru exclaimed. "...I bet the Hidden Mist bandanna in my forehead that every boy in your village wants to tickle your feet."

"No!" screamed Hinata even more embarrassed…

"Why not?" said Shidomaru. "Don't boys bring flowers and chocolates to you everyday?" but Hinata shook her head again…

"Then they're either blind or stupid…" Shidomaru concluded…

"That's not it…" said Hinata, sadly lowering her face. "I… I'm not strong enough!"

"Huh?" said Shidomaru in confusion…

"I'm the black sheep of my family… My own father considers me a weakling and a disgrace to my clan, so he expelled me from it…" Hinata explained sadly…

"The fuckin' old fart!" growled a horrified and angry Shidomaru. "How the bloody hell can someone be so cruel to his own daughter?"

But Hinata suddenly threw a kunai at Shidomaru, slicing some hairs from his head… "Never say such thing about my father again…" she then said in a serious tone, then she calmed down and proceeded with her story…

"…I trained… Day after day, doing my best to become strong and regain my father's love, but…" she said, and then she started to cry… "I tried… I tried the best I could! B-But… But I…I'm a failure!"

Shidomaru was once again moved by Hinata's tears. He got up, walked over to her, knelt down and hugged her. Hinata was both embarrassed and surprised…

"Poor Hinata…" said Shidomaru. "I'm sorry. I'm deeply sorry. I never imagined that your life would be that harsh…"

"Ah… That's ok!" said Hinata nervously. "Y-You don't need to take pity on me!"

"I just _want_ to take pity on you." Shidomaru replied. "This is a world of ninjas. No one is going to take pity on you, no matter on what dire condition you are… If I don't hug you, who will?"

Shidomaru then started to caress Hinata…

"Just concede me the pleasure of comforting a sweet, kindhearted, beautiful girl… please, just this once." said Shidomaru in a sad tone…

Embarrassed and blushing, but somehow comfortable in Shidomaru's embrace, Hinata relaxed her muscles and let her face and body rest on him…

"Poor girl…" Shidomaru thought to himself, sadly. "Even her family doesn't love her, and even though she tries her best, she still fails… I can't ignore this. If only I could do something to improve her life, at least a little bit…"

Days passed, and whenever Hinata had a free moment, she went to that place to meet with Shidomaru. One of those days, she had taken her shoes off and was about to step on that cold river water yet again, but she hesitated…

"What's wrong, Hinata-chan?" Shidomaru asked…

"I-I'm afraid. The water is too cold…" Hinata said hesitantly…

"Well… If you won't go into the river, then I'll tickle those beautiful feet. How do you like that?" said Shidomaru with an evil grin, causing Hinata to immediately venture into the river and then she started jumping around because of the cold water, like before…

"Aw, that's so cute!" said Shidomaru with hearts for eyes. "Your feet must be _really_ sensitive!"

Finally stabilizing and with both of her feet into the cold water, an embarrassed Hinata turned around to face Shidomaru and nodded. Shidomaru then stood up and walked towards her…

"You know…" he said "Water is the specialty of us Mist ninjas… And since my powers are based around ice and snow, cold doesn't quite affect me."

Shidomaru then performed a hand sign and melted into water. He then hid into the river in front of a scared Hinata. She suddenly jumped again and screamed as she felt something on her feet…

"Y-You tickled me again!" she said, now embarrassed even more.

"I can't resist! Your feet are so cute and delicate!" Shidomaru exclaimed.

"I-I'm _not_ cute!" Hinata screamed, more and more embarrassed. Shidomaru then reformed to his true shape and stood up in the river…

"Don't tell such blatant lies... please." He said quite seriously…

In the evening, they both had sat down below a tree near that same river. This time they were sitting beside each other. Hinata was still barefoot, though her shoes were right beside her. Shidomaru couldn't get his eyes off Hinata's feet, so she of course felt embarrassed and blushed…

"I still don't get it…" said Shidomaru. "Such a sweet and beautiful woman should have every boy in her village chasing after her... But you say _no one_ likes you?"

"As I said… It's because I'm not strong enough." said a sad Hinata…

"Are you telling me that those dumb-asses feel more sexually attracted by strong women than beautiful ones?" said Shidomaru incredulously…

"Don't insult them!" screamed Hinata. "They're the people of my village!"

"The dumb-asses of my village aren't so different in that aspect…" said Shidomaru in an annoyed tone. "Ninjas are living weapons, so power means everything… probably even in sexual matters. Every ninja village is probably like that too."

"There was, however, someone I liked… someone special…" said Hinata while sadly lowering her face…

"And he rejected you 'cause he's stupid like everyone else, didn't he?" said Shidomaru…

"I was the stupid one…" said Hinata, very sad. "I wasn't brave enough to confess my love for that person… He was strong and courageous, but everyone used to hate him… everyone except me, of course… But… despite having everything against him, he would fight and fight and keep fighting until he earned everyone's respect by becoming the Hokage!"

Hinata then smiled and blushed, which Shidomaru noticed…

"So that's your type of man, huh?" said Shidomaru, turning his gaze away and saddened "...A born fighter whose very life is a battle."

"If I were like that… If only I were brave enough to fight and keep fighting like that special person…" said Hinata, sad yet smiling…

"I still think he's stupid…" Shidomaru said with anger…

"There was another woman in his life…" said Hinata, starting to cry. A shocked Shidomaru looked at Hinata with surprise after hearing what she had just said…

"…I don't blame him…" she continued as she cried more. "T-That woman is not only much stronger and braver than me… S-She used to reject him…"

"…Uh-huh. But he's a born fighter, so her rejection just fueled his fighting spirit and made him try harder, right?" Shidomaru guessed. Hinata nodded…

"I'm happy that he's found his true love…" she continued, still crying. "But I can't help feeling jealous… If I were stronger, he wouldn't have ignored me…"

"You don't need to be strong in order to be loved…" Shidomaru suddenly said in a serious tone as he stood up…

Shidomaru's remark surprised Hinata. Still teary-eyed, she looked at Shidomaru as he walked over to her feet and sat down beside them. Shidomaru then gently grabbed one of Hinata's feet and started caressing it…

"Y-You-re tickling me…" Hinata said nervously…

"I'm not a fighter…" said Shidomaru, still caressing Hinata's foot. "I'm not the type that bangs his head on an opponent until he's defeated, and to tell you the truth I'm not fond of challenges… but…" He then very slowly took Hinata's foot close to his mouth and kissed it, startling Hinata and making her progressively embarrassed…

"…I can't stand it when someone this kind-hearted suffers so much pain…" Shidomaru stated with a sad look in his eyes while still caressing Hinata's foot. "Especially if this someone is the girl I have fallen in love with…"

Hinata gasped deeply and her face turned completely red…

"There! I finally confessed!" said Shidomaru closing his eyes with a sort of sarcastic grin. "Hate me for being so bold if you will, but…" Shidomaru then turned serious and looked at Hinata at her eyes…

"What you really desire is to be loved, isn't it?" he said seriously. "If so, you don't need to become any stronger… I already love you."

Hinata's heart was pounding way too hard due to Shidomaru's confession, so she finally fainted. "Hinata?... _Hinataaaaa!_" screamed an alarmed Shidomaru…

By the time she woke up, Hinata opened her eyes to see a worried Shidomaru leaning over her. Her first reaction was to scream and quickly move away from him with her face all red…

"I see…" said Shidomaru sadly. "So you don't like me, after all…"

In a sad mood, Shidomaru laid himself on the grass and turned away from where Hinata was. Still embarrassed, Hinata stared at Shidomaru with a look of fear in her eyes. Shidomaru didn't seem to want to move at all…

"Um…" she timidly tried to talk…

"What? ...You don't like me, do you?" said Shidomaru without even turning to face her. "You're free to run away from the pervert if you wish! ...Don't worry, I won't follow you."

Hinata then looked at the sad Shidomaru, taking pity on him. "T-That's not it!" she said to him. Shidomaru turned to face Hinata, and he looked both sad and angry…

"Look, I'm a man who likes to kiss, hug, caress and tickle. You're a woman who doesn't like to be touched much, judging from your recent reaction... Think about it! Shouldn't you look for a man who would make you happy instead of torturing you?" Shidomaru said to her.

Shidomaru turned away again and closed his eyes, trying to fall asleep. However, Hinata got up and walked over to him silently. She was still barefoot, and she hesitated for some seconds but then she gently poked Shidomaru's left shoulder with the toes of her right foot. He opened his eyes suddenly and then slowly turned around and found himself surprised to see Hinata's foot so close to his face, then he looked up and saw her glaring sweetly at him and smiling…

"I-I just want to say… Thanks." Hinata said with a smile…

"Anything for my beloved Hinata-hime." replied Shidomaru, smiling as well. Having said this, Shidomaru tickled Hinata's foot yet again, scaring her again and making her retreat in embarrassment yet again…

"Hinata-hime? I-I'm not a princess!" said the embarrassed ninja girl…

"It's getting late…" said Shidomaru. "You should return home soon or I bet someone'll get mad at you. We can play tickling some other time."

Hinata gasped with even more embarrassment due to Shidomaru's comment about "playing tickling", but she smiled at him immediately after…

"Um… Sure." she timidly replied. Shidomaru got up from the grass, waved a good-bye to Hinata and made his way to his hideout. Hinata put her shoes back on (they were where she had left them last time) and then she started running towards the Hidden Leaf Village in a good mood…

"My name is Hinata… I'm shy… And I… um… I-I'm not very strong… but… I somehow feel happy tonight… A boy has fallen in love with me!" she thought to herself, looking happy…


	3. Kirara

**I dedicate this chapter to a very special friend of mine who loves the beautiful Hinata-chan as much as I do. The new original character introduced in this chapter is based on this person. Enjoy! ;)**

Hinata once again came to that clearing in the forest to find Shidomaru waiting for her. "Shidomaru-kun!" she exclaimed. Shidomaru turned around, his dark brown eyes showing happiness because of Hinata's arrival. "Hi! …Hinata-chan…" Shidomaru greeted…

And so they both sat by two nearby trees, each laying their back on the trunk of one of said trees, at an angle of approximately 90 degrees from each other. Both trees were close enough and arranged in such a way that Hinata could easily rest her feet on Shidomaru's lap. Shidomaru didn't hesitate in gently taking off the shoe from Hinata's right foot, after which he tickled her. Hinata laughed and blushed, and looked at Shidomaru with tenderness in her eyes…

"I noticed you don't laugh very often, so I wanna give you some help." said Shidomaru, then he tickled Hinata's foot again and made her laugh more…

"Um… Y-You don't laugh very often either, Shidomaru-kun…" Hinata replied…

"Oh, sweet Hinata-chan…" Shidomaru said tenderly, then he once again kissed Hinata's foot…

"Liar… You _do_ like cheese!" said Hinata laughing slightly in a joking tone…

"Your foot is _not_ cheese!" Shidomaru angrily replied. "Your feet smell only of cleanliness!"

Hinata laughed even more and became even more embarrassed, not from the tickling but rather because of Shidomaru's flattery…

"I-I'm not _that_ beautiful!" she said, embarrassed. Shidomaru continued to caress and tickle Hinata's foot, making her laugh more and more. While they were at it, close to their location, closer than they could think, a little mysterious figure was secretly watching the couple. About an hour later, they were both taking a walk through the woods, side by side. Shidomaru stared at Hinata while walking, and Hinata covered the lower half of her face in embarrassment while avoiding looking at Shidomaru's eyes…

"Stop staring at me!" said Hinata, embarrassed but somehow glad. "I-I told you I'm not that beautiful!"

"No matter what you say, you can't hide an evident truth." Shidomaru answered. Even more embarrassed, Hinata covered her whole face with both of her arms and laughed…

"Look out!" Shidomaru suddenly screamed while stopping Hinata by putting his arm in front of her. Hinata screamed from the surprise as a shuriken flew out of nowhere and got stuck in a nearby tree…

"T-That was close!" said Hinata, scared. "Who dares?" Shidomaru furiously said, then a sound was heard not far ahead…

"There!" said Shidomaru while going for the kill. "Be careful!" Hinata warned him. However, after three steps Shidomaru fell into a well-hidden pitfall trap…

"Aah! Ah… A-Are you alright, Shidomaru-kun?" a scared Hinata said. Suddenly, a little mysterious figure took Hinata by her hand, surprising her. Before she knew what was going on, this mysterious little person was taking Hinata away…

"W-What are you doing?... Ah... Where are you taking me?" Hinata tried to ask, now even more scared. Once they both were well far from Shidomaru's location, the little mysterious character came to a stop and let go of Hinata's hand…

"Uh…Um…" Hinata said hesitantly and in confusion. The little person, after hesitating and trembling herself, turned around to face Hinata. She turned out to be a cute little girl, about Konohamaru's age and height. Long black hair and black eyes, the ninja headband she wore around her neck had the symbol of the Village Hidden in the Leaves on it. She also wore the typical shoes that ninjas of the Naruto series most often use, blue pants, and a very familiar-looking, old beige sweater. She didn't seem to dare to look at Hinata's eyes…

"Uh…Um…S-Sorry…" said the Girl hesitantly, fiddling with her fingers much like Hinata would do.

The girl tried to talk, but seemed too nervous and words just couldn't seem to come out of her mouth, so she instead bit her own lower lip. She even closed her eyes as if scared, then opened them again to glance at Hinata, at which point the little girl blushed…

"Um… Are you alright?" asked Hinata a bit worried…

"_Yes!_" the little girl screamed nervously, and then she covered her face with both hands in embarrassment, and soon started to sob…

"Um… W-What's your name?" asked Hinata while leaning towards the girl, willing to give her a helping hand…

"Kirara…" said the little girl while sobbing...

"Kirara-chan, can I help you with anything?" Hinata then asked, almost caressing Kirara but desisting…

"I'm sorry! I ruined everything!" said Kirara and suddenly started to cry…

"Um… E-Everything's fine! Don't cry, Kirara-chan!" Hinata told her. Kirara stopped crying, though the tears were still on her face. Kirara then started to fiddle with her fingers similar to Hinata. In the meantime, Hinata noticed something odd and looked at Kirara carefully, and then she gasped in surprise, putting her hand near her mouth…

"It can't be!" Hinata said in surprise. "That sweater… That's the sweater I used to wear when I was 12 years old!"

Kirara was, indeed, wearing the very same beige sweater that Hinata used to wear in the first Naruto series…

"It's my precious treasure!" said Kirara while hugging herself, closing her eyes as if ecstatic. "…A cloth previously worn by my idol Hinata-sama!"

"_Huh?_" exclaimed Hinata, surprised, confused and embarrassed…

"And today I finally get to meet you! I can't believe it! It's _you_! Hinata-sama in person, talking to me!" said Kirara suddenly getting hyped-up. Without controlling her own emotions, Kirara then hugged Hinata, embarrassing Hinata even more. However, once she realized what she was doing, Kirara gasped and quickly let go of her…

"Forgive me!" said Kirara while bowing to Hinata, nervous and afraid…

"Um…" said Hinata, then started fiddling with her fingers, which Kirara was already doing. Kirara then looked at Hinata's hands and then her own, noticing a slight difference, then she gasped again…

"Aah! I'm doing it the wrong way!" Kirara exclaimed, she then corrected her hand gesture to look exactly like what Hinata was doing…

"I'm sorry, Hinata-sama!" said Kirara.

"I-It's okay, Kirara-chan." said Hinata with a smile. Kirara then calmed down…

"I'm not yet sure about what just happened, but you seem to be a big fan of me… I'm actually surprised." said Hinata with a happy face, though embarrassed and blushing…

"I love everything that's sweet and tender… And Hinata-sama is the sweetest and most tender girl in the entire village… I always wanted to be like you." Kirara admitted…

"Uh… Ah… I think I'm really not that special…" said an embarrassed Hinata…

"Yes, you are! You're beautiful!" Kirara exclaimed…

"Well… Now that's two people who say I'm beautiful…" said Hinata, smiling and blushing. She then gasped like she had suddenly remembered something. "Shidomaru-kun!"

"Don't worry. He won't be here to bother us for a while." said Kirara…

"Um… Will he be alright?" said Hinata. Back at the pitfall trap, Shidomaru was finally out…

"Whoever did that to me, I'm gonna crush him!" said an angry Shidomaru. He then looked around and found that Hinata was nowhere in his field of vision. "No… What if he's done something to Hinata-chan?" Shidomaru thought to himself, horrified. Back at where Hinata and Kirara were talking…

"I put some extra traps to hold him. It'll take him some time to find us." Kirara said with a happy face. As Shidomaru took one step, he triggered another trap and a rope hanged him upside down…

"Crap! I'll tear that son of a bitch apart!" said Shidomaru even angrier. Kirara was once again fiddling with her fingers, blushing and looking at Hinata like Hinata would look at Naruto. Again, she was biting her own lower lip, not knowing what to say next…

"…I really hope Shidomaru-kun is ok." said Hinata…

"Um… I wonder… I-I wonder if you would play with me, Hinata-sama… That is, if I'm not bothering you…" said Kirara timidly…

"I-It's okay… What do you want to play?" Hinata asked. Kirara then looked down, at Hinata's feet. Hinata started to get scared, foretelling what was going to happen. Kirara crouched down…

"Let's tickle each other!" Kirara exclaimed while starting to tickle Hinata's feet…

"Ah! ...Aah! Lately, everyone's been showing me affection by tickling me!" exclaimed Hinata while trying to resist the tickling...

Having escaped the trap, Shidomaru wandered the Hidden Leaf Forest in search of his beloved Hinata. He soon tripped on an invisible wire, a fact he was quickly aware of. As Shidomaru carefully looked around, a barrage of shuriken, kunai and senbon flied towards him from an angle…

"Suiton: _Koori Kabe no Jutsu!_" shouted Shidomaru while performing hand signs. He then created a thick, big rectangular wall made of ice as a defensive measure, and it successfully blocked the entire barrage of ninja tools…

"The traps have gotten more deadly now…" he tought to himself. "I must be getting close."

After tickling Hinata, Kirara then laid herself on the grass in a slightly sensual pose. "Now's your turn, Hinata-sama! Please tickle me wherever you wish!" she said and closed her eyes, waiting for Hinata to tickle her, but Hinata just hesitated and stayed there fiddling with her fingers and saying "Um…"

"What am I doing?" said Kirara while suddenly opening her eyes and gasping. She then sat up and started to cry again, covering her face with her hands…

"I'm sorry, Hinata-sama! I was selfish and forgot to take your feelings into account!" Kirara said.

Hinata couldn't seem to figure out a way to deal with this new-found fangirl of hers, but then Shidomaru appeared. Both Hinata and Kirara were frightened as a slightly worn down Shidomaru came in with an evil, furious aura of chakra…

"Hinata-chan… Tell me where that son of a bitch is! I'll challenge him to a one-on-one battle!" he exclaimed furiously…

"Um… What are you talking about, Shidomaru-kun?" asked a frightened Hinata…

"…The son of a bitch who set all those traps and abducted you! _Where_ is he? I'll punish him!" Shidomaru furiously said. Kirara quickly got up and hugged Hinata while sticking her tongue out to taunt Shidomaru…

"We were having a great time but you had to show up!" said Kirara…

"But _where_'s the man who attacked me and separated me from my beloved Hinata-chan?" said Shidomaru still furious…

"I'm not a man!" Kirara corrected angrily. Then Shidomaru's furious evil aura of chakra suddenly disappeared. Shidomaru then put on a comical shock expression, completely taken by surprise…

"H-Hinata-sama is mine! I saw her first!" an angry Kirara exclaimed. "…Y-You're just invading! T-That's why I laid all those traps to get you away from her!"

"My competition for Hinata-chan's love is a little lesbian girl?" said Shidomaru with a disappointed look…

"If you want to have Hinata-sama, you'll have to defeat me first!" said Kirara while putting herself in front of Hinata, facing Shidomaru…

"Fine!" shouted Shidomaru, suddenly charging at Kirara, but Kirara didn't seem to be able to back up her brave words and screamed as she tried to run away. Shidomaru quickly caught her…

"Shidomaru-kun! Don't be too hard on her!" said Hinata, worried…

"Don't worry, Hinata-chan!" answered Shidomaru. With Kirara lying face-down on the grass, Shidomaru took off her left shoe and tickled her left foot full-force. "There! How about _this_?"

So much tickling on her foot made Kirara utter a loud laughter. She couldn't stop laughing, feeling such an intense tickling. After some minutes, Shidomaru let go of her foot. It took some minutes more for Kirara to catch her breath…

"That'll teach you not to mess with us!" said Shidomaru. However, in another completely unexpected reaction, Kirara suddenly got up and hugged Shidomaru. She now had hearts for eyes. "What the f…?" Shidomaru said, surprised…

"I love tickles!" said a rather enamored Kirara. Hinata giggled happily. Seeing Hinata happy with the end result, Shidomaru finally relaxed. Soon after, the three of them were reunited in that clearing in the forest, near the river…

"So, your name is Kirara…" said Shidomaru. Kirara nodded with an "nn" sound exactly like the one Hinata usually utters when she nods…

"I think it's wonderful that Hinata-hime has someone who admires her so devotedly. And the fact that you wanna be just like her… well, the world _does_ need more people like Hinata-chan." Shidomaru then said. Hinata laughed in embarrassment at Shidomaru's constant flattery…

"Just don't forget, she's _my_ girlfriend!" he then added…

"Shidomaru-kun!" Hinata screamed in embarrassment…

"The way you love Hinata-sama is so cute…" said Kirara…

"I'm glad to hear that." Shidomaru answered…

Kirara then turned her attention to Hinata. However, she blushed and words couldn't seem to come out of her mouth, and she just the finger fiddling Hinata is known for while again biting her own lower lip…

"Um… Kirara-chan, what's your favorite food?" Hinata asked so as to break the ice…

"W-What is yours?" Kirara replied timidly…

"M-My favorite food?" said Hinata "…Um…Cinnamon rolls."

"Really? That's my favorite food too!" Kirara suddenly exclaimed, but both Hinata and Shidomaru looked at Kirara without believing her much…

"Well, actually I haven't tasted a cinnamon roll in my life…" admitted Kirara while turning her gaze away in shame. "I just… I-I just want Hinata-sama to like me!"

"…I-I like you, Kirara-chan! I-I'd be glad to be your friend!" Hinata said kind of nervously. Kirara then gasped in surprise as she turned her gaze back to Hinata with excited, sparkling eyes…

"Really? W-Will you be my friend, Hinata-sama?" said a surprised Kirara, to which Hinata nodded with her "nn" sound as always…

"_I'm so happy!_ This is the happiest day in my life!" Kirara exclaimed while jumping from the happiness. She then ran over to where Shidomaru was… "Shidomaru-san! P-Please be my friend too!"

"Uh… Sure! Why not?" Shidomaru replied…

"Would both of you play with me? Please!" Kirara pleaded to both Hinata and Shidomaru…

"Y-Yes, of course!" Hinata replied…

"_Yaaaaay!_ Whee!" screamed Kirara while happily running all over the place. Hinata and Shidomaru watched in awe as their new little friend ran and played happily in front of them…

"Heck! Why does it kinda look like we've got a daughter or something? It's really weird!" said an annoyed Shidomaru while rubbing the back of his head with his hand. Hinata blushed and giggled again, pleased at what Shidomaru had just said. Shidomaru noticed that Hinata was enjoying herself and smiled to her…

"That's a great idea!" exclaimed Kirara while suddenly turning around with enthusiasm. Shidomaru and Hinata were surprised. Kirara ran back to them. "Whenever we come here, let's play being a family!" Kirara proposed then she giggled too, before the surprised looks of Hinata and Shidomaru. "Shidomaru-san will be the dad, and Hinata-sama will be the mom…" Kirara said while pointing with her finger at each one respectively, she then started to fiddle with her fingers again, as always trying to imitate Hinata, and put on a happy face as she blushed. "…And I'll be the daughter!" she finally added. While Shidomaru didn't seem very pleased with the idea, Hinata blushed and smiled…

"Um… T-That sounds… fun!" Hinata admitted. "What do you think about it, Shidomaru-kun?" she then asked him…

"Well, that's the kind of stuff that girls usually love to play, isn't it? …And you're gonna need a boy to play the father's role or the family won't be complete, right?" said Shidomaru while reluctantly forcing a smile. Hinata and Kirara both happily nodded at the same time with their "nn" sound…

"I guess I'm in…" said Shidomaru while turning his gaze away, ashamed and not very happy. Hinata and Kirara both innocently laughed at Shidomaru's reluctance to play girls' games…

"Mommy!" exclaimed Kirara, suddenly hugging Hinata with affection. Although embarrassed, Hinata smiled at Kirara's tenderness and shortly after she hugged her too…

"Daddy! Come! Let's hug all together!" Kirara then said to Shidomaru. Shidomaru hesitated, but looking at the tender scene of two beautiful girls hugging each other, waiting for him, made him smile unconsciously…

"Well… It may not be my type of game, but it's quite a beautiful family nevertheless." Shidomaru thought to himself, so he decided to join in and hugged both Hinata and Kirara. In particular, Kirara seemed to feel protected in the embrace of both Hinata and Shidomaru, and smiled with contempt as she blushed. At evening, Hinata and Kirara had to go back to the village…

"Good night, Shidomaru-san! Let's play again!" said Kirara happily waving her hand. Shidomaru watched Hinata and Kirara go away for a while, then he turned around and headed back to his hideout…

"It's odd, but… for the first time in my life… I'm happy… I don't need to get revenge on anyone anymore, as long as I can be with Hinata-chan." Shidomaru thought to himself.

Next mid-day, after their respective missions, Hinata and Kirara both came to the clearing but Shidomaru was nowhere to be seen…

"Shidomaru-san isn't here…" Kirara said sadly. "Where could he have gone, Hinata-sama?"

"Um… He told me he settled himself in a small hideout not far from here. Let's see…" said Hinata, then she performed a hand sign… "Byakugan!"

Hinata activated her Byakugan and scouted the area, easily finding Shidomaru's little improvised hideout. She saw a note on its entrance, which said "I've gone on a mission. I'll be back by mid-day"…

"I think he went out somewhere to look for a job." said Hinata while deactivating her Byakugan…

"Let's wait for daddy to return from his mission with lunch ready!" said Kirara enthusiastically. Hinata giggled timidly at the idea…

"You're taking our game very seriously, aren't you, Kirara-chan?" Hinata said. All of a sudden Kirara reverted back to shyness, blushing and fiddling with her fingers…

"L-Lets do it!" encouraged Hinata, so Kirara happily nodded and they briefly went back to the village. Not long after, Shidomaru came back to his hideout and found himself surprised to see Hinata and Kirara there, waiting for him with some food…

"Daddy!" said Kirara as she ran to Shidomaru and hugged him. Even more surprised than before, Shidomaru looked at Hinata…

"Um… W-Welcome home… darling…" said Hinata while timidly smiling and blushing…

"Maybe I died on that mission and ended up in heaven…" Shidomaru thought to himself, ecstatic. Some time after lunch they were all at that clearing again. Hinata was sitting by a tree and Kirara rested her head on Hinata's lap as Shidomaru watched…

"Um… Mommy…" Kirara timidly said…

"Y-Yes, Kirara-chan?" Hinata replied…

"Would you…? Um…" said Kirara, blushing and fiddling with her fingers imitating Hinata. "Would you please tickle me?"

Kirara got more and more embarrassed at her own petition. However, Hinata just smiled and affectionately tickled Kirara's abdomen, making Kirara laugh happily…

"The neck! Please!" pleaded Kirara as she laughed.

"Um… Ok." Hinata replied and so the next place where Hinata tickled was Kirara's neck. Kirara particularly enjoyed being tickled on the neck, especially by Hinata…

"I love you, mom!" Kirara suddenly exclaimed. Hinata got immediately embarrassed at the fact that Kirara had just told her she loves her, and on top of that she had called her "mom"…

"She really feels loved when she's tickled, huh?" said Shidomaru. Hinata tried to reply, but was too embarrassed and could only utter gibberish…

"Hey, don't blame me! You were the one who agreed to her idea of playing the happy family." said Shidomaru. Hinata covered the lower half of her face with her hands in embarrassment. Shidomaru walked up to both girls and crouched down next to them, starting to caress Hinata's beautiful blue hair…

"You know what? I love you too… mom." said Shidomaru softly in a seducing tone. As a result Hinata squealed and covered her whole face in embarrassment. Kirara got up from Hinata's lap, allowing Hinata to turn and face away from Shidomaru and Kirara, still covering her whole face (probably red with embarrassment) with her hands. Seeing this, Shidomaru put on a mischevious facial expression and quietly tried to get his hands close to Hinata's feet. He just barely touched Hinata's foot (still with both shoes on) and she immediately screamed from the tickling sensation and moved her feet trying to keep Shidomaru's hands at bay. However, Shidomaru grabbed her right foot, took the shoe off and tickled Hinata, who was still covering her embarrassed face with her hands and was thus unable to see what was happening to her tickled foot (she was not using the Byakugan). As a result of not seeing her foot while tickled, Hinata felt the tickling more intensely and laughed even more…

"How cute! Daddy really loves Mommy!" said Kirara with hearts for eyes "I love mommy too!"

Kirara then grabbed Hinata's left foot, takes her shoe off, and tickled. Hinata was being tickled on each foot by two different people, Shidomaru on the right and Kirara on the left. They made her laugh until she started running out of breath, at which point they both stopped, but Shidomaru caressed Hinata's foot a bit more…

"You've got such adorable feet, Hinata-hime." Shidomaru said. He then kissed Hinata's foot gently, making her scream again from the embarrassment…

"Tickling mom was fun! Dad loves mom so much!" Kirara said happily…

"Thank you, Kirara-chan…" said a blushing Shidomaru…

"Now let's tickle daddy…" said Kirara, suddenly changing to an evil grin…

"Huh?..." said Shidomaru with a comical shocked face. By that point, a rather ominous (yet still beautiful) Hinata slowly raised behind Shidomaru with an evil aura and eerie glowing eyes. All of a sudden, Hinata (returned to normal) quickly tickled both of Shidomaru's armpits relentlessly…

"_Hey!_ What the f…?" screamed a rather nervous Shidomaru. Kirara took the chance and jumped on Shidomaru, tickling his abdomen. Shidomaru screamed loudly, being tickled by both girls. Minutes later, Shidomaru was lying on the grass, with Hinata standing beside him. She was still barefoot, and was now tickling Shidomaru's abdomen with her foot instead of her hands…

"Now THIS is the type of tickling I want to receive from a girl…" said Shidomaru, relaxed and blushing. Hinata put on a happy facial expression and used her foot to tickle Shidomaru more intensely, causing Shidomaru to smile pleasantly…

"Awww… That's so tender!" exclaimed Kirara with hearts for eyes. She kept on watching as now Shidomaru tickled Hinata's foot yet again and they both played with each other. "Really, they look so cute together… The way Shidomaru-san tickles Hinata-sama with such huge affection… the way Hinata-sama looks so happy in his company… Shidomaru-san makes Hinata-sama feel loved… He's making her feel like a princess!" Kirara thought to herself, happily blushing. She then suddenly started to cry, at which point both Shidomaru and Hinata stopped playing and both turned their attention to Kirara…

"Um… Kirara-chan?" said Hinata, worried…

"What's wrong, Kirara-chan?" said Shidomaru as he got up. A crying Kirara immediately hugged Hinata…

"I love you, Hinata-sama! I love Shidomaru-san, too! I love you both!" Kirara said, crying from the happiness. Shidomaru walked over to where Kirara and Hinata were and caressed Kirara's hair. A surprised Kirara, still crying, looked at Shidomaru's somewhat sad eyes…

"That's supposedly what a family is for, isn't it?" Shidomaru said. Still with tears in her face, Kirara happily tightened her hug with Hinata, both with her arms and face. At evening, Hinata and Kirara had said goodbye to Shidomaru and were now back into their village…

"Um… A-Are you ok, Kirara-chan?" Hinata asked.

"Uh… Y-Yes!" replied a rather surprised Kirara…

"Did you have fun today, Kirara-chan?" said Hinata…

"Yes, Hinata-sama! I had a great time with you and Shidomaru-san today!" answered Kirara happily. Both girls stopped at a crossroad in the streets…

"M-My house is the other way…" said Hinata while pointing in the direction opposite from where Kirara had to go. "We'll say goodbye here, Kirara-chan."

"Um… I… I want to invite you to… um…" said Kirara while blushing and fiddling with her fingers, as shyness was making Kirara nervous. She then closed her eyes and blushed. "I want to invite you to sleep at my house someday! ...If you don't mind…"

"Kirara-chan! I… I'd love to!" said a surprised Hinata while happily blushing. Kirara looked very happy after hearing Hinata's answer…

"Y-You're welcome to drop by whenever you want!" said a happy Kirara. "Bye!"

"Goodbye, Kirara-chan." Hinata replied and both girls went separate ways. However, Hinata didn't get too far without encountering Kiba and Akamaru. None of the two looked very happy at all…

"Hello… Hinata." Said Kiba rather seriously…

"Kiba-kun!" a surprised Hinata replied. Followed by Akamaru, Kiba walked up to a scared Hinata, then he started to smell the air around her…

"As I thought." said Kiba angrily. "You're starting to smell like him…" Kiba then walked away. Akamaru hesitated and looked at Hinata while making a somewhat sad noise… "Let's go, Akamaru!" shouted Kiba in the distance, so Akamaru barked and followed Kiba as they both left a puzzled Hinata behind them…


	4. Fangs

At night, Hinata was on her bed about to fall asleep, but she was immersed in her thoughts. Actually, she was having a flashback about what happened in the evening. Hinata had returned to the Village Hidden in the Leaves after meeting with Shidomaru in the usual spot, and encountered Kiba and Akamaru. Kiba didn't look very happy…

"Hello… Hinata." Kiba had said…

"Kiba-kun!" Hinata had answered, surprised. Followed by Akamaru, Kiba had walked up to a scared Hinata, and then he had started to smell the air around her…

"As I thought. You're starting to smell like him…" Kiba had said angrily and then walked away. The flashback ended and a half-asleep Hinata looked both confused and sad…

"What did you mean? ...Kiba-kun…" Hinata muttered before finally falling asleep. The next morning, Hinata was already up and for some reason she was running towards the rendezvous point where team 8 was supposed to meet. Oddly, when she got there, she only found Shino. Hinata took some seconds to catch her breath…

"So, you've come…" said Shino. "I thought you guys would leave me behind again…"

"Shino-kun… Where's Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked.

"He hasn't arrived yet… That's strange. He's a hasty sort of person, so he usually is the first to arrive" said Shino…

"Kiba-kun…" said an already worried Hinata. Kiba and Akamaru were walking through the village's streets, but not towards the rendezvous point. Kirara happened to be nearby and, when she saw Kiba coming, she gasped and nervously hid behind a pillar like her idol Hinata often would when Naruto was near. As Kiba passed by, apparently not noticing her, Kirara blushed as she looked at him with hearts for eyes…

"It's Hinata-sama's sexy teammate, Kiba-kun!" Kirara thought to herself. "And his dog Akamaru-chan is so cute!" she added. Kirara watched as Kiba and Akamaru got lost among the multitude of people in the streets…

"They're going outside the village… I wonder why they're alone. Aren't they supposed to rendezvous with the rest of Hinata-sama's team?" Kirara thought to herself, she then silently and discreetly tried to follow Kiba and Akamaru from a distance. Akamaru uttered a noise while walking along with Kiba …

"Yeah, I can smell it too, Akamaru…" said Kiba seriously. "We're being followed."

Kiba got out of the village, stalked by a curious but excited Kirara. When both were outside in the forest and a distance away from the village entrance, Kiba and Akamaru came to a stop…

"Show yourself! I can smell you!" Kiba shouted. Akamaru barked once, in an attempt to reaffirm what Kiba just said (sort of like a "Yeah!"). Kirara timidly came out from behind a tree, but only halfway. She was blushing and didn't dare to look at Kiba at his eyes…

"I don't know who you are, but you're not Hinata…" said Kiba distrustfully "So stop mimicking her!"

Scared, Kirara hid behind the tree again, so Kiba got angry. "If you don't come, then I'll go get you!" he said. Kiba and Akamaru then ran up to where Kirara was hiding. Soon both were standing in front of her. Kirara's heart started beating faster as she blushed and looked at Kiba's eyes…

"He's here! Right in front of me! ...He looks even sexier from this close…" Kirara thought to herself, blushing and sweating…

"What the…?" said Kiba suddenly surprised. "That's the sweater Hinata used to wear three years ago! I know it!" He then got further angry and distrustful. "Where did you steal that from?"

Kirara tried to speak, but was way too excited and looked like she might faint at any second just like Hinata would…

"Take it off!" shouted Kiba angrily. Kirara gasped as her heart and time itself all seemed to come to a stop to her…

"He wants me to… take off my clothes?" an embarrassed (yet excited) Kirara thought to herself…

"Take it off _now_!" shouted Kiba even angrier and Akamaru barked right after. Just when it seemed that Kirara was going to faint, her face almost completely red, all of a sudden she started to slowly lower the zipper of Hinata's former sweater that she was wearing, then she started letting it slide down her arms in a seductive way while looking sweetly at Kiba's eyes. A worried Akamaru uttered a noise…

"What did you say, Akamaru?" asked a surprised Kiba. Akamaru made another noise, and then Kiba sniffed the air a bit…

"It's true… It's the smell from a receptive female… But that's strange! Where's it coming from?" Kiba wondered. Meanwhile, Kirara had completely taken off Hinata's former sweater. Kiba and Akamaru heard the sound of the sweater falling to the ground and looked at Kirara again, surprised. Kirara's face was almost entirely red and looked at Kiba, her eyes seemed half-asleep from so much excitement…

"What else do you want me to take off, Kiba-kun?" said Kirara speaking in a rather sexy tone, then she put her index finger into her pants, as if she were to take them off too…

"Uh… Y-You misunderstood!" said an embarrassed and sweating Kiba. "W-What I meant was…"

Akamaru suddenly barked. Alerted, Kiba dodged a kunai made of ice. Kirara watched with surprise as a serious Shidomaru made his entrance. "Stop sexually harassing that little girl." Shidomaru said seriously…

"You…" growled a furious Kiba, who forgot about Kirara and slowly walked a few steps towards Shidomaru. "Stay away from Hinata." he growled…

"Why should I?" Shidomaru replied rather coldly…

"I don't like the way you're regularly meeting with her!" said Kiba angrily. Akamaru growled and started to bark at Shidomaru. Akamaru's barking visibly irritated Shidomaru…

"If that filthy beast doesn't shut up now, I'll kill it!" the irritated Shidomaru said coldly…

"Touch Akamaru and you're toast!" Kiba shouted. A scared Kirara watched Kiba and Shidomaru, who were looking at each other's eyes with hatred…

"Are you her boyfriend?" Shidomaru asked in a very serious tone…

"Huh?" said Kiba in surprise…

"I'm asking you if you're Hinata-chan's boyfriend." Shidomaru asked again, still serious. The look in Kiba's eyes slightly saddened while he blushed…

"What nonsense are you blabbing about?" said Kiba as if trying to hide something…

"Why are you so desperate to take her away from me?" asked Shidomaru…

"_You_'re the one who's taking her away from us!" Kiba replied furiously. "Do you know why dogs are so faithful? It's because they've accepted their human masters as members of their pack!"

"I know that… It's an instinct from their wolf ancestors." Shidomaru answered. Kiba then searched into his pocket and took out a chakra pill…

"Then you know that a dog is willing to die protecting his master just like a wolf is willing to die protecting the other wolves in its pack." Kiba stated, and then he ate the pill. Akamaru made a noise, looking worried…

"I know it too well…" said Shidomaru with a look of disgust. "I hate dogs because of it."

Kiba then got on all fours. His fingernails and toenails grew and sharpened like claws. His teeth grew and sharpened too, particularly his fangs. His hair bristled and his eyes now had a look of madness. All of these characteristics of course made Kiba resemble a dog, while his chakra began to rise and became visible as an aura…

"Well… Hinata is a member of my pack…" Kiba growled furiously. "The pack known either as Team 8 or Team Kurenai… I'll do whatever it takes to protect her from dangerous strangers such as you! _Tsuuga!_"

Kiba then rushed towards Shidomaru, spinning in the air in a corkscrew fashion. Kirara screamed as Kiba's attack seemed to connect and rip Shidomaru apart. Kiba stopped spinning and landed…

"Hm… I won…" Kiba confidently said as he smiled. But Akamaru barked, alerting Kiba again. A surprised Kiba looked behind himself to find the pile of snow he had destroyed with his attack...

"Snow? Here, in the Land of Fire?" he said in surprise. Akamaru barked again, trying to alert Kiba as Shidomaru appeared from behind him with a katana made of ice in his hand…

"Suiton: Yukibunshin no jutsu." Shidomaru said coldly, and then he tried to slice Kiba in half with the ice katana, but Kiba's instincts made him jump away from Shidomaru just in the nick of time…

"An ice user, huh?" said Kiba. Akamaru then barked at Kiba. "Yeah… You're right, Akamaru…" Kiba answered to his dog…

"Kirara!" said Shidomaru seriously…

"Y-Yes?" answered a scared Kirara…

"Run away… _now_…This place isn't safe." Shidomaru ordered. Kirara then picked Hinata's former sweater up and ran away, though only a short distance so not to bother the combatants, and then she hid behind a tree…

"Awww! I was so close!" a frustrated Kirara said, not having been able to seduce Kiba. She then looked at the sweater, which dirtied from falling to the ground. "Nooooo! It dirtied!" she exclaimed. "I can't face Hinata-sama like this!" Kirara then looked back at the battle that was about to burst between Shidomaru and Kiba…

"Why? ...Why is Kiba-kun picking a fight with Shidomaru-san?" Kirara thought to herself. "Maybe…" Kirara then made a deep gasp, as in horror, while covering her mouth with her hand. "Maybe there's a lover! …An intrusion in our family!" Kirara's imagination then started to fly…

"Kiba-kun is so sexy that he might seduce even a goddess like Hinata-sama!" thought Kirara while imagining Kiba naked from the waist up, sexier than the real thing

"I love you, Hinata…" said Kirara's imaginary Kiba. "Oh, Kiba-kun…" replied Kirara's imaginary Hinata. "Stop right there! Hinata is my wife! Get your dirty hands off her!" said Kirara's imaginary Shidomaru…

"…Then Kiba-kun and Shidomaru-san will fight to the death over beautiful Hinata-sama's love!" Kirara thought to herself, imagining an embellished tragedy scene. "They may even end up killing each other at the same time!"

"Kiba-kun! Shidomaru-kun!" Kirara's imaginary Hinata would cry desperately…

"And without a father, the remaining members of the family will feel so lonely! Mother and daughter, supporting each other in the hard times!" Kirara was thinking to herself, imagining herself and Hinata hugging each other, both crying. Then Kirara opens her eyes widely, as if surprised. "…Just Hinata-sama and me!" Kirara then imagined a very affectionate hug between herself and Hinata, both happy. Suddenly Kirara's imagination took a little perverted twist when she imagined a lesbian kiss between Hinata and herself. "How wonderful!" Kirara thought to herself, with hearts for eyes, but she soon shook her head and pulled herself together…

"Wake up, Kirara!" she thought to herself, seriously. "They're going to fight! Both Kiba-kun and Shidomaru-san might get seriously hurt!" Kirara then clutched Hinata's former sweater more firmly. "Hinata-sama wouldn't want Kiba-kun and Shidomaru-san to hurt each other… I know Hinata-sama wouldn't want anyone to get hurt because of her! ...and I don't want them to hurt each other either…" Kirara thought to herself, worried, and started to watch Shidomaru and Kiba from behind a tree. Back to the site of battle, Kiba had taken out another chakra pill, which he fed to Akamaru. As a result, Akamaru's entire fur turned red and bristly as he became fiercer…

"Now we mean business…" Kiba said as he got up and turned to face Shidomaru again. Shidomaru carefully watched as both Kiba and Akamaru molded and built up chakra…

"_Juujin Bunshin!_" Kiba shouted. Suddenly, Akamaru made a puff of smoke and got transformed into a clone of Kiba…

"Two on one, huh?" Shidomaru thought to himself. Kiba and Akamaru charged towards Shidomaru at the same time. Kiba then threw a couple of smoke bombs to obscure Shidomaru's vision…

"_Gatsuuga!_" He shouted. Both Kiba and Akamaru spun in the air like in Kiba's previous attack, and charged at the cloud of smoke from different angles. Shidomaru jumped out from the cloud of smoke, still facing it…

"He's hurt!" an alarmed Kirara thought to herself. Shidomaru looked surprised as a small minor wound was bleeding in his face…

"He reached me? Why? I used Kawarimi no Jutsu with my Yukibunshin!" Shidomaru thought to himself. When the cloud of smoke dissipated, both Kiba and Akamaru were there with a crumbled pile of snow. Kiba had a bit of blood in one of his fingers…

"It's easy for Akamaru and me to tell you from your Yukibunshin…" said Kiba. "Your clones are made out of snow, so they've got no smell. You know how dogs identify everything by smell, right? So, your Kawarimi no Jutsu is useless against us!"

"I see…" said Shidomaru while putting on an evil grin. "I made the mistake of believing I was fighting an intelligent being… From now on I'll fight you as I would fight a mindless beast!"

"You can't escape!" Kiba shouted, and he threw the smoke bombs again as he and Akamaru both charged towards Shidomaru. "_Gatsuuga!_"

Kiba and Akamaru used their combination attack again. Kirara screamed as she closed her eyes, believing that Kiba was going to kill Shidomaru. However, she suddenly heard the sound of something colliding with something very hard. Both Kiba and Akamaru jumped out from the cloud of smoke, both looked puzzled…

"Kawarimi no Jutsu? ...No, it can't be. His smell is still there." Kiba thought to himself. Then the smoke dissipated… "What the…?" said Kiba in shock. Kirara was surprised too. There was a really big chunk of ice where Shidomaru should have been, and it was cracked in the two places where Kiba and Akamaru had struck. When they all looked carefully, they could see Shidomaru inside, performing a hand sign. Shidomaru opened his eyes inside of the ice…

"Come out of that chunk of ice and fight like a man!" Kiba shouted angrily. Shidomaru then performed a different hand sign and the chunk of ice suddenly exploded. The shrapnel of sharp ice shards hurt both Kiba and Akamaru. A cold mist still enveloped Shidomaru partially…

"As I thought, just a mindless beast." Shidomaru coldly stated…

"So, you're one of those geeks that never use taijutsu, huh?" said Kiba with disgust as he got up with Akamaru. "...No problem! I'll just tear your weak body apart with physical attacks! Let's go, Akamaru!" then both of them charged forward again…

"He's right… I can't let them reach me!" Shidomaru quickly thought to himself while performing hand signs. However, by the time Shidomaru was ready to perform his jutsu, Kiba and Akamaru already had Shidomaru within attacking range…

"They're too fast!" Shidomaru thought to himself, shocked…

With evil grins in their faces, both Kiba and Akamaru slashed at Shidomaru with their claws, sending him rolling. Shidomaru ended up lying on the grass, facing away from them…

"Shidomaru-san!" screamed a worried Kirara…

"Now's our chance, Akamaru!" shouted Kiba with a confident grin, then both of them charged at Shidomaru again, this time baring their fangs to bite, and tried to jump on him. However, still lying on the grass, the wounded Shidomaru suddenly turned around and showed he had already been performing hand signs…

"Suiton: _Koori Senbon!_" Shidomaru shouted. Because Kiba and Akamaru were trying to jump on Shidomaru, they were unable to turn in the air, and Shidomaru bombarded them both with ice needles and sent them flying. The impact of this ninjutsu caused Akamaru's transformation jutsu to revert…

"People often say you can't predict a beast…" said Shidomaru, getting up with difficulty. "But I say beasts can easily be predicted as long as you know all about their particular instinct."

Kiba got up with difficulty, now wounded too due to the ice needles. "Why, you…?" he growled furiously.

"I loathe dogs…" Shidomaru said in a cold yet furious tone. "They always bark at me, intending to bite me just because I'm passing by near them… Because I hate them so much, I studied their instinct, just in case I ended up being attacked by a dog someday…"

"You think you're so cool! Don't you?" Kiba roared…

"Sure… I can quite easily predict a dog's next move, but dogs are fast and I'm slow…" Shidomaru thought to himself. "Even if I know what he's gonna do next, I might not be able to dodge his attack on time…" He then remembered how he was slashed by Kiba and Akamaru before he was able to perform his jutsu, since Kiba and Akamaru have the upper hand on speed. "My only chance is to plan ahead before he even starts his attack… I can't attack head-on, his agility enables him to dodge and quickly strike me… But if he's like a dog, then his palette of options is limited to slash or bite, high or low… In that case, I can only defend. If I try to evade or hide, he'll find me…"

Then Shidomaru suddenly had a flashback of Kiba saying "You know how dogs identify everything by smell, right?"…

"That's it!" Shidomaru thought to himself, widely opening his eyes. Both Kiba and Akamaru were up again, despite their wounds…

"We're gonna kill you with our next attack! Let's go, Akamaru!" Kiba shouted furiously, then both of them charged towards Shidomaru at the same time, but Shidomaru had been already performing hand signs…

"Suiton: _Tsumetai Arashi_!" Shidomaru shouted, and then he cast a fierce blizzard upon Kiba and Akamaru which obscured their vision. However, the cold snowy wind didn't seem to deter them…

"_Gatsuuga!_" Kiba shouted, and both Kiba and Akamaru attacked in combination again, but after they destroyed their target and Kiba got up, he was surprised. "Snow? Another Yukibunshin? …But why…?" he said. Suddenly, Akamaru uttered a suffering noise… "What do you mean you can't smell him?" Kiba answered, and then he clutched his own nose, feeling pain…

"The air is way too cold…" he thought to himself. "It hurts just inhaling it… So that's his plan…"

"How's that?" Shidomaru's voice sounded. "I'm told that Siberian dogs lose their sense of smell because of the extremely cold conditions they live in! This cold blizzard should nullify your sense of smell!"

"Don't underestimate me just 'cause I've got dog traits…" said Kiba with a grin, then performed a hand sign, sending more of his chakra into his nose. That way, he caught Shidomaru's smell. "_I found you!_" he screamed as he charged.

Kiba again tried to jump on Shidomaru, but Shidomaru seemed to have been expecting it, already having performed the necessary hand signs. "Suiton: _Koori Tou no Jutsu!_" Shidomaru shouted while touching the ground with the palm of his hand.

Suddenly a big tower of ice erected below and slightly in front of Kiba. Seeing that Shidomaru intended to impale him, Kiba tried to turn in mid-air, resulting in a non-fatal blow, but he was nevertheless knocked off balance. Things seemed to go slow-motion as Kiba looked at Shidomaru with the corner of his eye, afraid of Shidomaru's merciless cold eyes…

"Suiton: _Koori no Uzu!_" shouted Shidomaru in a rather cold attitude. As ice and snow gathered into a spiral in front of Shidomaru, it became apparent that he intended to unleash an ice version of Zabuza's Giant Vortex Jutsu on Kiba at point-blank range. However, just when it seemed that Kiba was finished, Akamaru jumped in and pushed Kiba aside, receiving the attack himself…

"_Akamaru!_" Kiba screamed. Kirara, too, was terrified at what she was seeing…

"Does Shidomaru-san really have this much power?" she thought to herself, terrified. "...Is he really Shidomaru-san? Is he the very same Shidomaru-san who loves Hinata-sama with all of his heart? ...He now looks…cold…"

Shidomaru's last attack had left a line of devastation. In that devastated zone lied Akamaru, alive but shivering form the intense cold, covered in frost and exhaling clouds of vapor…

"_Damn you!_ Kiba roared as he furiously attacked Shidomaru, but Shidomaru quickly turned around, making a katana out of ice, and ruthlessly slashed Kiba, miraculously not dealing a fatal blow, though the wound was grave enough to not let Kiba get up...

"Idiot…" Shidomaru stated coldly. "Wasting your friend's sacrifice by getting hurt…" Shidomaru then reformed the ice katana into an ice spear and, even colder than his ice, he prepared to stab Kiba. "I'm sorry, Hinata… I'll have to sacrifice your two dogs…" he said. Kiba closed his eyes, preparing to die…

"_Stop!_" Hinata screamed. Shidomaru's cold eyes suddenly became full of emotions again and he came to a sudden stop. Instead of killing Kiba, Shidomaru turned around to find Hinata crying. "Shidomaru-kun! What are you doing?" she screamed hysterically…

"Why? ...I'm…" said a confused Shidomaru, but Hinata ignored Shidomaru and ran to the wounded Kiba…

"Kiba-kun! Hold on! I'll bring help!" screamed Hinata while crying…

"Hinata, no…" said a gravely wounded Kiba. "Please… save Akamaru…"

Hinata then looked at Akamaru and was horrified to find him seemingly dying of cold. A furious Hinata got up and slapped Shidomaru so hard that she knocked him back some steps…

"How could you do this to my friends?" Hinata furiously cried. "Y-You're a _monster_! _I hate you!_"

Hinata's words had a serious impact on Shidomaru's psyche, so much that he fell on his knees, clutched his head (dropping his ice spear in the process) and screamed out loud as if completely gone mad. That night at the hospital of the village, Kiba's wounds as well as Akamaru's were attended by Sakura while Hinata and Shino waited outside. After some time, Sakura came out…

"It's a good thing you brought these two here on time." said Sakura. "They could have died from those wounds… Just _who_ did they pick a fight with?"

Hinata lowered her gaze, very sad. Kirara was there too, hiding behind a pillar, crying because of Hinata's sadness. Some time later, Shino was escorting Hinata back to her house…

"So it was him…" Shino said. "I suspected that mist shinobi from the very beginning."

"He… He seemed so kind and gentle…" said Hinata sadly. "…but he's a very bad person… he tried to kill Kiba-kun."

The two were now at the front of Hinata's house, nearing the main gate. Neji just happened to be in the garden walking towards that same gate from the other side…

"I don't know why I fell for such an evil person…" said Hinata. Neji could overhear the conversation from his side of the gate. Having heard Hinata saying that she fell for someone, Neji tried to listen carefully to the conversation…

"If that's the case, I think you should stop meeting with him." Shino said…

"Yes… I think you're right, Shino-kun… I'll stop meeting with Shidomaru." Hinata replied…

"Was Hinata-sama really meeting someone regularly?" Neji thought to himself, surprised. "Did she…?" but Neji's thoughts were interrupted when Hinata opened the gate to enter the house…

"Welcome home, Hinata-sama!" Neji greeted.

"Um… Good night, Neji nii-san." Hinata greeted back and then walked to the entrance of her rather big house and took her shoes off so as not to dirt the floor. Neji followed after her…

"How was your day, Hinata-sama?" asked Neji while walking along the hallway with her.

"I-I don't want to talk about that." Hinata replied.

"Understood…" said Neji, then he suddenly stopped while Hinata kept on walking. "Hinata-sama!" Neji called. Hinata stopped and turned around. "Your father has called you to his room."

"Um… I'll be right there." Hinata answered and she started walking in the opposite direction, passing Neji by. She finally got to a room guarded by two guards with the very same white eyes that she and Neji have…

"Um… I was told my father called me…" Hinata said to the guard.

"That's right, Hinata-sama. Please go in." he answered and then the guards opened the door to Hinata's father's room. Hinata's stern father, named Hiashi, was standing at the center of the room, Hinata seemed afraid in his presence…

"Sit down, my daughter." He said.

"Yes, father." Hinata replied and she sat down. So did her father…

"I shall go straight to the point." Hiashi said. "I have heard rumors claiming that you have been regularly meeting someone at the Hidden Leaf Forest. Now, I want you to answer truthfully… Are you indeed regularly meeting with a person at that place?"

"N-Not anymore…" Hinata replied…

"But you did meet with him…" Hiashi inquired…

"I-I'm done with that person." Hinata stated. "I never want to see him ever again."

"I am glad to hear that." said Hiashi. "I was about to forbid you to ever see that boy again, but it seems it shall not be necessary."

"How does my father know that the person I've been meeting is a boy?" Hinata thought to herself with some suspicion…

"You can leave." Hiashi said…

"Yes, father." Hinata replied and then she got up and walked out of the room. From a secret entrance below a panel behind Hinata's father, Neji came out and knelt down in reverence…

"Hiashi-sama…" said Neji. "Do you still want me to carry out that mission?"

"Yes…" Hiashi replied. "Do exactly as I told you previously… Please protect my daughter from him." he added…

"Yes, Hiashi-sama" Neji answered and then he disappeared in a puff of smoke…

"I cannot afford to let the Byakugan fall into the wrong hands…" Hiashi thought to himself. "I shall not allow your sacrifice to be wasted, dear brother… I swear."


	5. Revenge

Shidomaru was lying on an improvised bed inside his hideout. It was mid-day already and Shidomaru still hadn't come out of bed, and didn't seem to want to do so. He soon had a flashback of a crying Hinata saying to him "How could you do this to my friends? Y-You're a _monster_! _I hate you!_", and then Shidomaru started to cry bitterly. "Hinata… Hinata…"

Soon enough, someone's shadow could be seen obscuring the little hideout's entrance. Shidomaru paid attention to it, but didn't bother to get up and confront it…

"What did you have to come back for, huh?" he said to the mysterious person that was entering his room. "...Didn't you hate me, Hinata-chan?"

The intruder was, in fact, none other than the beautiful Hinata herself. "I've come to take your life… Shidomaru." she said seriously, but shidomaru smiled, and then looked at the ceiling and closed his eyes…

"Well, go ahead, Hinata-chan." he said. "There's nothing else in this rotten world that has caught my interest. Please take my life, it's yours."

Hinata hesitated…

"Kill me with your own beautiful hands! _Now!_ Put me out of my misery!" Shidomaru said angrily…

"Shidomaru-kun… Why? …W-Why did you try to kill Kiba-kun?" Hinata asked. Shidomaru opened his eyes, still looking at the ceiling…

"You mean the dog-boy?" Shidomaru asked.

"Um… yes." Hinata replied.

"Because he wanted to kill me" said Shidomaru.

"B-But… Why would Kiba-kun want to kill you?" Hinata asked…

"Because he loves you…" answered Shidomaru with a saddened look in his eyes. Hinata gasped in surprise as she blushed…

"…Liar! Ki… Kiba-kun wouldn't fall in love with someone like me! No one would!" Hinata shouted in embarrassment.

"Well, boyfriend or not, he nevertheless was afraid that I might hurt you someday, so he decided to strike first to prevent such thing from happening." Shidomaru calmly replied.

"Kiba-kun is _not_ my boyfriend!" shouted Hinata…

"Are you listening to me?" asked a rather annoyed Shidomaru…

"…Y-Yes!" Hinata answered, still embarrassed…

"I bet you heard the word 'boyfriend' and ignored the rest of the sentence…" said Shidomaru, annoyed.

"I told you he's _not_ my boyfriend!" Hinata shouted more embarrassed than before. Shidomaru turned around, facing away from Hinata…

"I'll talk when you're ready to listen." said Shidomaru…

"I-I _am_ listening!" said Hinata. Shidomaru sighed and turned around again to face Hinata…

"That guy is a dog!" Shidomaru said. "It's natural for dogs to attack any strangers that get close to their friends, isn't it?"

"It's you who isn't listening…" said Hinata seriously. Shidomaru then put on a skeptical yet interested expression…

"…I said Kiba-kun is not my boyfriend… That means he won't be jealous if I hang out with someone else. He couldn't have attacked you out of jealousy." Hinata stated…

"Um…" a voice behind Hinata sounded. Hinata turned around and found Kirara hiding behind the frame of the hideout entrance…

"Kirara-chan!" Hinata exclaimed in surprise…

"Hinata-sama…" said Kirara as she entered the hideout. "I witnessed it… I saw Kiba-kun and Shidomaru-san's fight from beginning to end… Kiba-kun attacked first…"

Kirara then remembered Kiba growling the phrase "Stay away from Hinata" to Shidomaru, and also remembered Kiba saying "I'll do whatever it takes to protect her from dangerous strangers such as you!" right before attacking Shidomaru…

"...I-I'm not saying Shidomaru-san is innocent…" said Kirara, turning her gaze away sadly. "Kiba-kun was afraid that Shidomaru-san would do something bad to you, and was just trying to protect you, Hinata-sama…" Kirara then started to cry. "But… even if he was unfairly accused, that doesn't give Shidomaru-san the right to treat Kiba-kun and Akamaru-chan so coldly!"

Shidomaru looked at the ceiling, his eyes showing a sad expression. Hinata walked up to Kirara and hugged her, letting her cry on her shoulder…

"It's a perfect chance, now that I'm recovering from the wounds of that battle…" said Shidomaru, closing his eyes with sadness. "Kill me now, Hinata!"

Hinata let go of Kirara and turned around to face Shidomaru, slowly walking up to him, as if really going to kill him. Shidomaru relaxed as he waited for his beloved one to take his life, but Hinata just slapped him…

"W-What's that?" Hinata asked angrily. "W-Why are you giving up so easily?"

"What the fuck do you mean?" Shidomaru answered even angrier. "You hate me! It's all over, now! I've got nothing left!"

"It was Kiba-kun's fault for jumping to conclusions without enough information. That's not how a shinobi should work." Hinata stated seriously. Her look then saddened, looking as if she was taking pity on Shidomaru. "…Besides… It's no wonder that you're cold and ruthless in battle… after all, you are… an avenger."

Hinata then had a flashback of Shidomaru saying "I'm seeking revenge"…

"Yes…" said Shidomaru, looking at the ceiling again. "I told you that day, didn't I? Seems like you didn't believe me…"

"I do believe you…" Hinata replied. "You're not like us Leaf ninjas… You're an assassin in pursuit of power in order to destroy those who have hurt you… or your beloved ones, if you had any…"

"So, you _did_ understand it that day…" said Shidomaru. "Doesn't it cause repulsion to you?" he then asked…

"Y-Yes, it does…" Hinata said while fiddling with her fingers again. "But… that doesn't mean you've lost your humanity."

A surprised Shidomaru turned his head to look at Hinata's beautiful eyes…

"You're still able to feel compassion for others, aren't you?" said Hinata. "...That day, when I was fleeing from you and stepped on something that hurt my foot… Do you remember?"

They both then had a flashback about that time when Hinata had been escaping Shidomaru, believing him to be a threat, so much that she hadn't bothered to recover her shoe and was fleeing with only one. She had stepped on a lost shuriken long ago thrown into a branch, with the left foot, the one she didn't have a shoe on, and had lost balance and fallen, but her chaser Shidomaru quickly had positioned himself below her to absorb the impact of the fall and save her. Not long after, Shidomaru had torn a sleeve of his shirt to use as a bandage for Hinata's wounded foot. Shidomaru was unconsciously smiling with pleasure at the good deed he had done to her…

"You wouldn't have helped me if you were a bad person… and… You were actually happy to have helped me! I saw it in your smile!" said Hinata…

"Did I smile that time?" said a confused Shidomaru…

"Y-Yes! ...You also tried to comfort me whenever I cried…" Hinata answered…

"How do you know I haven't been feigning all this time in order to someday invade your village and learn its secrets?" Shidomaru retorted. "What if I was just playing with your feelings?"

"Y-You wouldn't do that!" said Hinata, a bit afraid…

"Shidomaru-san isn't that type of person." Kirara added…

"How is it you both are so sure of it? Don't forget we're ninjas! We're the best there is at deceiving people!" Shidomaru answered…

"I can see it in your eyes!" Hinata then said…

"What?" said a surprised and confused Shidomaru…

"There's a look of sincerity about you… I can see it!" said Hinata, fiddling with her fingers again. "You're someone who doesn't like to hide the truth about himself, and you always speak what's in your mind… If you wanted to harm me or any of my friends or if your intention was to attack the Hidden Leaf Village… you would have boldly said it."

"Do I stink that much as a ninja?" said Shidomaru, annoyed…

"Sorry! T-That's not what I meant!" Hinata replied nervously…

"So, despite having nearly killed your friend, you believe me…" Shidomaru asked skeptically…

"Revenge only brings more revenge, and it wraps around in an infinite circle of hatred… I heard that from a very special person." said Hinata sadly. Shidomaru's look saddened, remembering that he was seeking revenge before meeting Hinata…

"It's not too late…" Hinata suddenly said with a look of hope. "You've still got kindness in your heart. If you abandon the darkness now, you will be happy and have a lot of friends."

Shidomaru again stared at the ceiling. "Whenever I get into a fight… I become cold and merciless…" he sadly said. "That's how I was taught to survive the world of shinobi… Look, I'm not the kind-hearted tender person that you most often see. Even in my own village, I'm always clashing with everyone. The only reason I was kind to you and Kirara-chan is because…" Shidomaru then unexpectedly blushed. "Shit! It's because I like girls! I'm a pervert with a foot-tickling fetish and a…"taste" for sweet kind-hearted girls!" he stated, closing his eyes in an annoyed mood. Hinata and Kirara both giggled…

"I knew it…" said Hinata. "You haven't completely given yourself to the darkness of revenge. You're not cold, and you find pleasure in helping others out… although only girls…"

Shidomaru turned his gaze away, annoyed and blushing. Hinata lowered her face with a sad look, yet smiling a bit. "…You're not like Sasuke." she then said…

The three of them remained silent for a while. "I think I'll get up…" Shidomaru suddenly said, and then he sat up in the bed. When he was out of the bed's sheets, both girls screamed and covered their faces, discovering that Shidomaru had a habit of sleeping nude…

"…W-We'll wait outside!" Hinata nervously screamed, she and Kirara then quickly got out of the hideout, where they uncovered their blushing faces and breathed agitatedly…

"H-He really is the open, sincere type!" said an agitated Hinata…

"You know what's funny, Hinata-sama?" said an equally agitated Kirara. "...Shidomaru-san actually has a sexy body, although not as sexy as Kiba-kun…" Hinata then glanced at Kirara, comically surprised…

"There you are, Hinata-sama." a voice sounded. Hinata and Kirara both got startled and looked in the direction where they heard the voice come from. Neji had entered the scene…

"N-Neji nii-san!" Hinata exclaimed in surprise. Kirara hid behind Hinata, afraid of Neji…

"I see… So there's where that scum is hiding. Thanks for pointing it out to me, Hinata-sama." said Neji…

"Y-You followed me?" said Hinata…

"I've got orders from your father. I must assassinate the criminal who is deceiving your innocent heart, Hinata-sama." Neji replied…

"He's acting just like Kiba-kun!" said a scared Kirara…

"It's just like Shidomaru-kun said…" Hinata thought to herself…

"I'm going in to put an end to that villain." said Neji while advancing towards Shidomaru's hideout…

"Please, don't!" exclaimed Hinata while blocking Neji. "Shidomaru-kun hasn't done anything wrong! H-He only hurt Kiba-kun in self-defense!"

"Step aside, Hinata-sama. Please." Neji pleaded…

"No!" Hinata exclaimed firmly…

"You've been deceived by that lowlife named Shidomaru… I must eliminate him not only for your sake, but for the sake of our clan… no… for the sake of our entire village!" Neji stated…

"I won't move!" Hinata insisted…

"I'm sorry, Hinata-sama… Please understand." said Neji and then he pushed Hinata aside with as less force as possible and rushed into Shidomaru's small hideout. Everything was dark, but Neji could see a bulk below the bed's sheets. "Byakugan!"

Examining the bed with his Byakugan, Neji found that what was inside the bed was nothing but a pile of melting snow…

"Snow?" Neji thought to himself. He then tried to turn around and leave, but it was too late and a huge chunk of ice fell on the entire little hideout with Neji still inside, crushing it flat and scaring Hinata and Kirara. Both girls turned around to see Shidomaru, now completely dressed up and performing a hand sign…

"Shidomaru-kun! What have you done?" screamed Hinata, horrified…

"I already told you…" Shidomaru coldly answered. "That's the way a shinobi survives."

"That's true…" Neji's voice sounded, surprising all three of them, Shidomaru, Hinata and Kirara. Not long after, the ice violently shattered and Neji emerged from below it with hardly a scratch. His eyes were closed…

"A smart move, indeed…" said Neji. "But you can't fool my clan's kekkei genkai…" he then opened his eyes, white just like Hinata's, and his veins bulging just like hers. Shidomaru was in shock when he saw the look in Neji's eyes…

"You fuckin' bastard…" Shidomaru said in shock "You are…"

"…The Hyuga clan's Byakugan!" Neji continued. "…I am Neji Hyuga, and I've been sent to dispose of you."

"Hyuga…" Shidomaru growled with a growing rage. Hinata and Kirara became afraid, seeing the rage build up in Shidomaru's eyes as he glared at Neji…

"H-Hinata-sama… W-Why is Shidomaru-san so furious? ...I'm scared…" said Kirara, afraid…

"I've been waiting years for this day!" roared a totally enraged Shidomaru. "_I'm gonna get my revenge on you, Hyuga crap!_"

Hinata and Kirara were left in shock with Shidomaru's sudden revelation…

"Hmph… So, you've got something personal against the Hyuga clan?" Neji asked…

"It was about six or seven years ago…" explained the enraged Shidomaru. "I was a genin from the Village Hidden in the Mist, and I had supposedly been sent with a team composed of my former academy classmates on a mission to retrieve more of those filthy eyes… the Byakugan…"

"So, you were not satisfied with the one already in one of your shinobi's possession?" said Neji with his characteristic mocking grin…

"I said _supposedly_!" Shidomaru shouted "…I was still so naive at that age…"

Shidomaru then started to have a flashback. It had been a night when a 13 or 14 years old Shidomaru had been jumping and striding on the tree branches with an all-male team of boys more or less his age. The four of them had come to a sudden stop at a really thick tree branch, at which point they had grouped together to discuss their strategy…

"Ok, here's what we do…" said one of Shidomaru's teammates. No matter how you looked at them, none of Shidomaru's three partners looked trustworthy. You could easily tell how evil they were just by looking at their faces. "…The chumps we're gonna own ain't far. What we want you to do is spying on 'em for us a bit so you can then come back and tell us their weakness." the evil boy continued…

"Think you're up to it?" another one asked Shidomaru…

"Heh! I could do it with my eyes closed!" the much younger Shidomaru said arrogantly…

"If you're a man and do it, we promise we're not callin' you weirdo anymore" said the third one of them…

"Yeah! We're gonna tell everyone in the village to treat you with respect!" said the one who spoke first…

"Who knows? Maybe we'll introduce you to one of our babes?" said the other one with an insinuating gesture…

"I'm too young for that, you perverted piece of shit!" Shidomaru angrily answered. "I won't have sex until I get married!"

"You're _truly_ a weirdo!" another of Shidomaru's partners exclaimed…

"Why, you…?" Shidomaru growled furiously, taking out a kunai from his tool bag…

"Easy!" said one of them intending to break up the fight. "Just go and get your job done! You wanna be respected by the villagers, don't you?"

"I'm sick of everyone bullying me without even knowing why" Shidomaru answered, lowering his face with a saddened look.

"How can you _not_ know why?" said one of the evil boys, quite sincerely surprised…

"Aw, shut up your ass!" another one answered…

"Well, move your ass already! Go get 'em!" another one of the boys said and Shidomaru went ahead on his own, not even suspecting what was waiting for him there. Shidomaru strode a little more before stumbling into a hidden wooden house. Lights were off, as if no one was there. Not one to mindlessly rush into danger like Naruto, Shidomaru carefully examined everything around the wooden house, and stopped when he found himself back at the front door…

"Byakugan… that translates as 'white eye'… I've heard of something called by that name before, but haven't actually _seen_ one… I wonder what it is? …Maybe it's some kind of jewel?" the young Shidomaru naively thought to himself. Knowing that the house was dark inside, Shidomaru took out a flashlight and proceeded to enter the house from somewhere other than the obvious front door. It was pitch black inside, so the flashlight really came in handy. Shidomaru's little adventure in the dark didn't last long, however…

"So, you're the one who's come for the Byakugan…" a deep, cold and emotionless voice said from the darkness. It frightened Shidomaru to his very core, almost making him drop the flashlight. The lights inside the house suddenly turned on, just a second before the flashlight burned out. Shidomaru was shocked, as there was a group of Hyuga clan members, headed by none other than Hiashi Hyuga himself. With his stern presence, Hiashi was the one who terrified Shidomaru the most. Shidomaru was so terrified that he dropped the burned-out flashlight…

"T-This can't be!" Shidomaru suddenly thought to himself as he realized the truth. The 'white eye' he was supposedly sent to retrieve were the Hyuga clan members' actual eyes…

"If you want to have our eyes, you shall pay the ultimate price!" Hiashi ruthlessly stated…

"H-How did you know I was coming?" Shidomaru asked nervously. Hiashi then threw a kunai that passed right beside Shidomaru's head and left a little bleeding wound. The kunai was holding a piece of paper…

"You shameless lowlife!" Hiashi replied. "Are you denying that you have previously sent us a note?"

The shocked Shidomaru looked behind, at the note stuck to the wall by the kunai. It was indeed a note announcing that someone would come for the Byakugan…

"That handwriting…!" the shocked Shidomaru thought to himself, then he thought about one of the teammates of his current mission, since the handwriting was his. Shidomaru didn't have time to ponder about it, though, as he was quickly held by two Hyuga clan members…

"We cannot let our pride as the most powerful clan of the Village Hidden in the Leaf get stained by a worthless Bloody Mist scum" said Hiashi in his terrifyingly stern tone. "You shall be punished!"

And so, another Hyuga clan member approached the young Shidomaru and started to beat him up mercilessly. Shidomaru screamed and cried from the pain of each hit. It was too much for a weak boy with no taijutsu to speak of. The Hyugas beat him to a bloody pulp as their stern leader Hiashi emotionlessly watched. By the time the Hyugas got tired, Shidomaru was lying on his own blood on the floor. By a whim of destiny, his head just happened to be facing towards one of the front windows of the wooden house. From there, the terrified Shidomaru could see his own teammates grinning maliciously while one of them pointed a flaming arrow at that same window Shidomaru was looking through, his pupil trembling as his eye let out a tear…

"And with this, the Hyuga clan's pride shall remain…" the Hyuga leader was voicing his victory speech when the flaming arrow blazed into the wooden house and startled everyone…

"Everyone! Get out!" Hiashi urged his subordinates as the wooden house caught fire. They all got out but left Shidomaru there, to his doom…

"Only then I realized…" the current-day Shidomaru narrated, still enraged. "My very own people had gotten rid of me! They despised me! And the Hyuga scum did their dirty work for them! _They killed me!_"

That's where the flashback ended…

"Waaaaaaah! What a sad story!" Kirara cried out loud spouting streams of tears "Poor Shidomaru-san!"

"Shidomaru-kun was despised by everyone in his own village!" Hinata sadly thought to herself. "He's just like…"

"Such an interesting little story…" retorted Neji sarcastically "…but there's a detail. If the Hyuga clan killed you, then why are you here today?"

"That's a good point!" said a confused Kirara who suddenly stopped crying and started to ponder. "Aaaargh! It doesn't make sense!" she finally ranted in complete confusion…

"I'm not sure, either" Shidomaru seriously replied. "I think someone took care of me…"

"Someone took care of you?" Neji skeptically asked. Shidomaru then briefly remembers being half-buried under the remains of the burnt-down wooden house. It was morning and a rather little shadow quietly approached him…

"I was temporarily blinded from my wounds…" Shidomaru explained. "…so I couldn't actually see who this person was… From the feeling I guessed it was some little kid or something, since this person's hands seemed small and delicate when they touched me." Next thing Shidomaru remembers in this short flashback is having regained his strength and sight. "But… by the time I regained my sight, that person was nowhere to be seen…" Shidomaru continued. "Too bad I was never able to thank him properly."

The second flashback also ends…

"Having regained my strength, I dedicated myself to become stronger in order to take revenge" said Shidomaru, progressively getting more enraged. "I hunted down the people who betrayed me one by one and killed them without even giving them a chance to beg for their miserable lives! Not long ago, I crushed the last one of them… Now only one enemy remains: _The Hyuga clan!_"

"That wooden house Shidomaru-kun mentioned…" Hinata thought to herself. "Could it be that warehouse belonging to the Hyuga clan that mysteriously burned down one night, six or seven years ago? ...Could it be that Shidomaru-kun is…?"

"Well, thanks for telling me that little interesting story" said Neji as he shifted into his fighting stance. "Now I can eliminate you with no regrets"

Both Hinata and Kirara became really worried…

"_Bring it on, Hyuga garbage!_" Shidomaru furiously screamed, so Neji charged without a second thought.

"No! Stop!" Hinata screamed, to no avail. Neji attacked Shidomaru with his Juuken fighting style, only to destroy a Yukibunshin. Not wasting any time, Neji quickly looked around with his Byakugan active and found Shidomaru in no time…

"There you are!" said Neji while charging towards Shidomaru again…

"Suiton: _Koori Kabe no Jutsu!_" Shidomaru quickly shouted while performing hand signs, forming an ice wall barely in the nick of time to protect himself from Neji's attack. Neji continued to attack the ice wall, gradually cracking it…

"He's not like the dog-boy…" a surprised Shidomaru thought to himself. "He's at a completely different level! I have almost no time to plan my next move!"

After a few hits with his Juuken, Neji shattered the ice wall. "You can't escape!" he exclaimed as he directed his next attack directly towards the center of Shidomaru's chakra net. Thinking quick and acting even quicker, Shidomaru performed a different hand sign and melted into water…

"You can't fool my eyes." said Neji as he followed the liquid Shidomaru's movements with his Byakugan even though he had filtered himself into the ground. Shidomaru emerged from the ground a safe distance from Neji, still in liquid form, and started to revert back to his solid form when he suddenly realized Neji was already attacking him, so he melted again before even reforming completely and filtered into the earth again…

"It's like he predicts my every move!" Shidomaru thought to himself, still in liquid form while coursing through the soil. "No, rather… it's as if he could see my every move… Now I get it, no matter where I hide, he can see me with those eyes… So _this_ is the Byakugan…"

"So? I wonder where you are going to hide next?" said Neji mockingly. He could see Shidomaru's liquid form go into the river water. Neji quickly ran to the river. "Too predictable!" he exclaimed as he attacked the water with his hand, successfully hurting Shidomaru despite being in liquid form…

"Shidomaru-kun!" Hinata screamed. Shidomaru got out of the water and reverted back to solid form, with his hand on an aching spot in his body…

"Even in my liquid state you were able to hurt me… That must have been…" said Shidomaru…

"…Juuken" said Neji. "I don't need to hit you with brute physical strength. By just barely touching you with my fingertips, I can inject chakra into your body… You were lucky that your chakra net is quite disordered in your liquid form, otherwise I could have easily blocked all of the chakra points in your body, rendering you unable to perform any jutsu"

"Well, that sounds like useful information to me" said Shidomaru with a grin, already performing hand signs…

"Don't worry… You'll not live long enough to actually use that information!" shouted Neji as he charged at Shidomaru again…

"Look out!" screamed Hinata just as Neji's hand was about to make contact with Shidomaru's chest…


	6. Hyuga

"Look out!" screamed Hinata just as Neji's hand was about to make contact with Shidomaru's chest…

"Suiton: _Yukibunshin no jutsu!_" Shidomaru shouted as he quickly left a clone made of snow in his place. He had no time to run away because Neji was attacking relentlessly, but the Yukibunshin gave Shidomaru a very small breather to perform another jutsu…

"Suiton: _Koori Kabe no Jutsu!_" he shouted next, this time forming multiple layers of ice walls, which Neji started to gradually break one by one…

"That won't stop me!" said Neji while attacking relentlessly and busting through each ice wall at a fast pace. Right after he shattered the last wall, Shidomaru was performing the last hand sign for another jutsu…

"Suiton: _Kirigakure no Jutsu!_" Shidomaru shouted. A well-known jutsu of the Hidden Mist shinobis, Shidomaru blanketed the whole area in an extremely dense mist…

"Hinata-sama! Where are you?" Kirara exclaimed. "I can't see a thing!"

"Grab my arm!" said Hinata to help Kirara so she wouldn't get lost. Once Kirara grabbed onto her, Hinata performed a hand sign, "_Byakugan!_" However, she was shocked to find that she still couldn't see through such dense mist. "I-I can't see them! This mist must be incredibly thick!" she said…

Neji seemed lost into the mist too, scouting around with his Byakugan without success. "This enemy not only has an absurd amount of chakra…" he thought to himself. "…His chakra control is also extremely trained and refined. But he has a weak body… He must have focused his training on ninjutsu and genjutsu and probably left taijutsu aside… He is the antithesis of Lee"

Somewhere inside the incredibly thick mist, Shidomaru kept himself well-hidden, but still alert to his surroundings…

"This should buy me some time" Shidomaru thought to himself. "Now, from what I've seen so far he seems to be a close-range combatant. Even though he could perfectly see my position every second, every time he attacked he bothered to come all the way to get me… Since he's a taijutsu specialist, meaning that we both excel at what the other one stinks at, we'll both probably try to pull the opponent into our own terrain… Having said this, I'd better stick to my own fighting style and keep my distance from him. I must avoid being close to him at any cost!"

Back to where Neji was standing, he pondered his own situation as well…

"I see… He's weak at taijutsu, so he can't engage me in close combat and will instead try to attack me from a distance with ninjutsu… Our styles are opposite, meaning that whoever can pull the other into their own area of expertise is going to win this battle… and he's aware of that fact" Neji thought to himself while expectant at the enemy attack. "Well… First of all, let's get rid of this bothersome mist… _Kaiten!_"

Saying this, Neji started to spin at an amazing speed, forming a rotating sphere of chakra around himself. The chakra rotated with such force that it caused a strong wind. Hinata and Kirara screamed in unison as they hugged each other. The strong wind eventually scattered the dense mist, making Shidomaru perfectly visible to Neji's eyes again…

"Heh! ...I bet none of you imagined that my rotation move could be used for things like this" said Neji in a rather boastful tone. Shidomaru started performing hand signs without saying a word to Neji. "Come on! I'm waiting for your projectile attack!" Neji boasted further…

"Suiton: _Koori Senbon!_" Shidomaru shouted and thousands of needles made of ice bombarded Neji…

"_Kaiten!_" Neji shouted as he started to spin again, parrying the entirety of Shidomaru's jutsu with his rotating shield of chakra…

"So that's his defense…" Shidomaru thought to himself while performing more hand signs. "Suiton: _Kirikizu Ame no Jutsu!_" he shouted (which would roughly translate to "cutting rain technique"). Thousands of ice needles rained on Neji from all directions…

"It's no use!" exclaimed Neji as he simply rotated again and parried every single ice needle…

"His shield doesn't make any resonance whatsoever. I don't think I can break through it" Shidomaru thought to himself as he performed even more of his hand signs. "Suiton: _Koori no Uzu!_" he shouted, and all of a sudden launched a much stronger giant vortex of snow and ice. Neji was surprised by this sudden change in attack force, but rotated nevertheless and successfully defended himself from the massive quantities of snow and ice launched at him by rotating for as long as Shidomaru's attack lasted. Neji successfully parried it all despite the enormous strength of Shidomaru latest jutsu…

"As I suspected… Attack strength seems to be irrelevant in his case…" Shidomaru thought to himself with a bothered expression in his face…

"Now there's no doubt about it… He's analyzing my defense!" Neji thought to himself. "He's making me show him my Kaiten over and over again in order to find its weakness… I must admit I expected him to be dumb and less cautious… I think I now understand why Kiba lost to him… Well, then! No more games!"

Shidomaru launched another ice-based attack towards Neji, but instead of defending he simply dodged it quickly…

"He must have caught up to my plan!" a surprised Shidomaru thought to himself. "He's not just another dumb-ass…"

However, when Neji landed after dodging Shidomaru's ice attack, he suddenly found himself slipping, though he was able to quickly regain his balance before falling. Hinata and Kirara also watched in surprise as the whole ground in the battlefield had frozen below them all…

"Yep! Definitely, you're fast!" Shidomaru said to Neji. "I thought I'd better do something about that bothersome speed of yours!"

"Hmph! This frozen floor represents no problem for me" Neji replied with a smirk intended to make it seem that he wasn't affected…

"He's probably realized already that I found a weakness in his defense…" Shidomaru thought to himself. "Besides that, if we both had continued that way, his chakra would have run out first, which he's probably aware of…"

Neji then tried charging at Shidomaru in a zig-zag pattern despite the slippery frozen ground…

"Suiton: _Tsumetai Arashi!_" Shidomaru shouted after another sequence of hand signs, and a fierce blizzard enveloped the whole area. "He'll try to focus on dodging, so I must favor widespread attacks over concentrated power." Shidomaru thought to himself while following Neji's every move. "It'll take patience, but by damaging him little by little, I might win this battle!"

Shidomaru then purposefully slipped backwards on the frozen ground just when Neji reached him so that Neji's attack would come up short, but despite Shidomaru getting away from him, Neji smiled…

"I knew you'd do that" Neji gloated. "_Hakke Kuushou!_"

By launching a palm-thrust into the air between himself and Shidomaru, Neji pushed said air with tremendous force…

"_What?_" a surprised Shidomaru exclaimed, unable to dodge the shockwave that hit him with great speed and force and pushed him against a tree. Hinata and Kirara turned their gazes away in grief, not wanting to see Shidomaru being hurt…

"Yes. I _am_, indeed, a close-range combatant…" Neji admitted. "…But that doesn't necessarily mean I don't have a projectile attack of my own"

Shidomaru got up with some difficulty, weakened after receiving Neji's Hakke Kuushou directly…

"Give up…" said Neji as he changed his voice into a more grim tone. "I can see you no matter where you hide. I can see your every move. I can see all of your strategies. I can see every single inhalation and exhalation as you breathe! ...and I can see into your evil, rotten heart…"

"Is that so?" a wounded Shidomaru retorted with a skeptical grin, while Hinata and Kirara ran towards the scene, arriving where Neji and Shidomaru were…

"Yes…" Neji answered rather coldly. "…It is thanks to these Byakugan eyes, which are a result of belonging to the advanced bloodline of the Hyuga clan."

"Well, then?" Shidomaru retorted again…

"What?" Neji asked…

"…What do you see inside my heart?" Shidomaru inquired sarcastically. Neji just closed his eyes and smiled overconfidently, he then opened them again to glare at Shidomaru with a serious expression…

"I see greed and envy… I see a common criminal who hates the Hyuga clan out of envy for our Byakugan! I see a greedy person wanting to grasp the Byakugan's power for his own benefit!"

"Neji nii-san, _no!_" Hinata squealed…

"I hate the Hyuga clan, indeed… and I'd be pleased to destroy every single one of them… but… Why the Byakugan? Where did you pick up that idea? Why is the Byakugan so involved in all of this?" the wounded Shidomaru asked…

"You dare to play fool with us?" Neji answered angrily. "We're all perfectly aware that you're aiming for marriage with our lord's daughter!"

"Are you retarded?" Shidomaru retorted, angry as well…

"_What?_" Neji shouted…

"I'm not marrying any big lord's daughter, you fuckin' asshole! The _only_ person I'm giving my heart to is that angel with blue hair over there! The _only_ woman I'd ever marry is Hinata-chan! _Only Hinata-chan!_ Get it, you girly crap-eater?" Shidomaru answered furiously. Neji just smiled confidently…

"Don't you mean… _Hinata Hyuga?_" Neji retorted with a gloating expression, already tasting victory…

"_W-What?_" said the shocked Shidomaru, startled by what Neji had just said. "Did you just call her…?"

Hinata became sad and lowered her gaze while putting both hands near her breasts, fiddling with her fingers again and blushing in shame, especially avoiding Shidomaru's eyes…

"Let me introduce this lady to you" said Neji in a mocking tone, then he became serious again. "This person is Hinata Hyuga, elder daughter of Lord Hiashi Hyuga, who is the boss of all the Hyuga clan and is also my uncle, making me a direct cousin of Hinata-sama."

Such revelation left Shidomaru devastated…

"Now that I think of it…" he thought to himself as his widely open eyes trembled, traumatized before such turn of events. "…she also has white eyes…And I think I saw the veins around her eyes bulge once, the day I learned her name…"

With his traumatized face Shidomaru lifted his gaze to look at Hinata's eyes, who still avoided visual contact with him…

"I-I'm sorry, Shidomaru-kun" said Hinata as she started to cry. "I-I should have told you sooner."

"Those eyes full of tenderness and compassion… Are _those_ eyes Byakugan?" Shidomaru wondered to himself right before remembering the white eyes of Hiashi Hyuga, cold and emotionless, the eyes of a person who wouldn't care even for the life of his very own daughter, similar to the eyes with which Neji Hyuga is looking at him now. "That can't be… Such a wonderful person with such a kind heart can't be…!"

"My guess is as follows" said Neji "You seduce Hinata-sama, who is Hiashi-sama's daughter and heiress of the clan, and then you play with her heart in such a way that she ends up convincing her father to arrange her marriage to you… Then, when the time comes, you'll take control of our entire clan and use our power to fulfill whatever wicked ambitions you have!"

"T-That's not true, Neji nii-san!" the crying Hinata exclaimed. "Shidomaru-kun would never do something like that!"

"I'm sorry to tell you this, Hinata-sama, but your judgement is clouded by your emotions." Neji answered. Hinata gasped…

"B-But…" she then tried to answer…

"Please, open your eyes to the truth, Hinata-sama!" Neji interrupted. "Here we have a rogue shinobi from a foreign village who explicitly stated that he wants to marry _you_, the heiress of the Hyuga clan, which is the most important clan in all of the Village Hidden in the Leaves! Isn't that suspicious to you? A rogue ninja who deserted his own hidden village and the heiress of the Hyuga clan? That's inconceivable! Such kind of romance is… it is…" Neji then paused for a second. "…it is _forbidden_!"

Hinata tried to answer to Neji's harsh lecture, but she was crying so much that the words didn't come out and she knelt down and cried even more in front of Shidomaru's horrified eyes…

"I'm sorry to be so harsh on you Hinata-sama…" said Neji as his cold eyes suddenly saddened. "…But you must understand that you have a responsibility as the heiress of the Hyuga clan. As a member of the main branch of the Hyuga family, you…"

"_Shut the fuck up, you girly shit-eating son of a bitch!_" Shidomaru interrupted Neji, screaming in a furious voice, startling everyone around him. "_Hinata-chan is not one of you shitheads! She's no Hyuga crap! Hinata-chan is kind, gentle, compassionate and sweet! She's the most wonderful person I've ever met! Hyugas are arrogant, inflated fucks obsessed with the pride of their clan and have no compassion whatsoever! There's no way my beloved Hinata-chan could be one of you Hyuga shit!_" a raging Shidomaru screamed violently from his very soul.

Without saying a word, an enraged Neji Hyuga violently charged towards Shidomaru in response to his insults…

"_Noooo!_" Hinata screamed, but it was already too late. After sending Shidomaru through the tree with a single hit, Neji changed into a certain stance while a yin-yang circle appeared below himself and Shidomaru, with Neji at its center. It was obvious what was about to happen next…

"Hakke… _Hyaku Nijuu Hachi Shou!_" the enraged Neji shouted as he started his vicious 128-hit combo on Shidomaru…

"Neji nii-san, _stop_!" Hinata screamed to no avail…

"…Eight palms!... Sixteen palms!... Thirty-two palms!..." Neji continued shouting as he hit Shidomaru's body all over with his Juuken…

"_Stop!_" screamed Hinata as she suddenly hugged Neji from behind and started to cry on his shoulder. If it had been any other person, Neji wouldn't have paid any attention. But it was Hinata, the daughter of Hiashi, so Neji forced himself to stop his jutsu…

"Please! Don't hurt Shidomaru-kun anymore!" Hinata cried…

"Hinata-sama…" said Neji as his eyes showed an expression mixing both anger and sadness. He then slowly turned around to face her. She was looking at his eyes, crying. A moved Neji glared at Hinata's eyes in silence for some seconds. "Please forgive me, Hinata-sama" said Neji as he laid his index finger gently on Hinata's forehead. Hinata's expression changed. She knew what Neji was intending to do…

"_Noooooooo!_" Shidomaru screamed as Hinata suddenly collapsed, though Neji caught her to prevent her from hitting the ground…

"Hey! What did you do?" Kirara exclaimed angrily "No one hurts Hinata-sama in my presence!"

Kirara then tried to attack Neji, only to be knocked out in a single hit by him…

"_Kirara-chan!_" the horrified Shidomaru screamed. "You… _You fuckin' son of a bitch!_ Not only did you dare to hurt your own cousin, but Kirara-chan too! _You're a monster! _Is _that_ what it means to be a Hyuga?" he kept screaming furiously…

"Hinata-sama is just asleep, and I hit that female genin as softly as possible in a non-vital spot" Neji stated, showing some irritation. He then gently laid Hinata on the ground and then he stood up and turned around to face Shidomaru, activating his Byakugan again and looking at him with hatred. "Besides, the criminal here is you!"

Neji then walked to the place where Shidomaru was trying to stand up…

"This is where your pathetic attempt ends, rogue Mist shinobi. You shall regret having ever defied the Hyuga clan. The order that Hinata-sama's father, Hiashi-sama, has given me is… to exterminate you! _Die!_" said Neji, he then launched a final palm thrust straight towards Shidomaru's heart…

"I can't use my chakra... so _this_ is the power of the Hyuga clan…" Shidomaru thought to himself as everything went slow-motion. "So, I'm going to die…"

But, all of a sudden, Shidomaru pulled out lots of hidden chains and tied himself and a surprised Neji together. "_What?_" Neji said…

"If I'm going to die here…" said Shidomaru with a wicked smile. "…then I'll at least take one of those Hyuga mothafuckers with me to hell!"

Then Neji noticed much to his horror that dozens of explosive tags were hanging all over the chains' links…

"I'm sorry, Hinata-chan… if only we had been from the same ninja village, then… maybe…" Shidomaru thought to himself as he slowly closed his eyes, weakened from the battle and preparing to die…

"_Kage Nui!_" a voice suddenly shouted. Then a shadow extended along the ground and long spikes emerged from it, skewering every single explosive tag and taking all of them to a relatively safe distance from Shidomaru and Neji just in the nick of time before they exploded. The shockwave did throw both of them, of course. The shadow then retracted to its source of origin, to where the still awake Neji looked…

"What a drag…" one of the three people there complained…

"It's you!" the surprised Neji exclaimed. They were none other than Konoha's famous Ino-Shika-Cho team, also known as Team Asuma or Team 10. Shikamaru Nara, Ino Yamanaka and Choji Akimichi…

"Team Ino-Shika-Cho has arrived!" said a flirting Ino, overestimating her own beauty as always…

"We're here to capture the rogue shinobi who supposedly lurks in this area" said Choji…

"I don't remember having called for reinforcements…" a distrustful Neji said to them…

"And I don't remember hearing that you were included in our mission" Shikamaru retorted. "Man, it was such a bother just to save your ass…"

"Why are you saving this criminal?" Neji asked angrily…

"I didn't save him, I saved _you_" said Shikamaru. "As always, you go around acting all overconfident. You had that one coming to you."

"What did you just say?" Neji growled…

"What a drag… Untie them, guys!" said Shikamaru…

"Why don't _you_ untie them?" Ino asked, comically angry…

"Because I spent a lot of chakra in saving Neji's sorry ass" Shikamaru yawned. "Don't you see I'm tired?"

"You're just a slacker" said Ino. She then proceeded to untie Neji and Shidomaru…

"Looks like things were really tight a moment ago" said Shikamaru as he looked around and noticed Hinata and Kirara lying on the floor. After untying Neji, Ino ran over to see them…

"Oh, poor girls! That rogue shinobi is so cruel!" Ino exclaimed…

"Ahem! ...Actually, I did that" said a somewhat ashamed Neji…

"But… Why?" asked the confused Choji…

"This scum had played with their hearts. He had them on his side… They're not hurt, just rendered unconscious" Neji explained. Shikamaru then looked at the unconscious Shidomaru who lied on the ground, next to Neji…

"Well… Hand this guy over to us" said Shikamaru…

"Why should I do that?" Neji replied. "Hiashi-sama, the leader of the Hyuga clan, ordered me to assassinate him"

"Tsunade-sama, our _Hokage_…" Shikamaru retorted, putting emphasis on the word 'Hokage' with some sarcasm to Neji "…ordered us to capture the shinobi who was regularly meeting Hinata in this part of the forest… _alive_"

Neji didn't know what to answer, and just showed his teeth in anger and frustration…

"Awww… Too bad, Neji" said Ino, again believing she was the prettiest girl in the world, which she's _not_…

"This Hidden Mist shinobi is going to be taken in for questioning" said Choji…

"You don't understand!" Neji argued. "It's crucial for the future of the Hyuga clan… No, for the future of our village itself! This lowlife must be killed before it's too late! ...That is, if it isn't already too late…"

"Uh-huh… So, is your clan going against Hokage-sama?" Shikamaru replied quite calmly and coldly…

"…I caught him first!" said Neji, trying to make things go his way…

"You caught him or did _he_ catch _you_?" Shikamaru calmly answered…

"_What_ did you say?" Neji angrily answered…

"Actually, we've been watching the whole movie all along" said Ino…

"Seriously, I had to bother with my Kage Nui just because you got overconfident and underestimated your adversary" said Shikamaru. "…So much for the so-called genius of the Hyuga clan! You almost got blown up by a pathetic loser whose only jutsu is to make popsicles"

The angered Neji tried to attack Shikamaru in response, but Choji instantly jumped to Shikamaru's defense by putting his massive body between Shikamaru and Neji, which forced Neji to stop or otherwise he would have to face Choji's sheer brute strength…

"Speaking of the Hyuga clan… I don't believe Popsicles was really trying to destroy your clan as he claimed…" Shikamaru stated, 'Popsicles' being his new nickname for Shidomaru since he used ice-based attacks exclusively…

"What do _you_ know?" an irritated Neji said…

"He's been meeting with Hinata here regularly, hasn't he? If he had any interest in your clan whatsoever, he would have asked Hinata about _every_ secret of the Hyuga clan, including but not limited to the Juuken fighting style and its weaknesses, and Hinata would have told him everything, provided he had manipulated her into loving him like you implied, of course…" Shikamaru explained…

"Exactly… That's why I must kill him now, before he can use those secrets!" Neji answered…

"Don't you get it, Neji? He _hasn't_ learned any secrets about the Hyuga clan. According to the moves he executed in your battle against him, I'd say he was studying you… Isn't that right?" said Shikamaru. A surprised Neji then briefly thought about it and remembered how Shidomaru was looking for a weakness in Neji's defense in mid-battle…

"Isn't it obvious? Why would he need to study you if he has supposedly already learned your weakness from Hinata?" Shikamaru asked, leaving Neji mute, yet Shikamaru continued talking "Then again, Popsicles obviously isn't that smart if he didn't notice your most obvious weakness…"

"My most obvious weakness?" said the surprised Neji…

"Yeah, and you both share it. Both Popsicles and you are too impulsive and hot-headed." Shikamaru stated…

"How dare you?" Neji growled in anger…

"What a drag… That's _exactly_ what I mean…" Shikamaru answered in annoyance. Neji calmed down since he quickly understood what Shikamaru meant. "A true shinobi always stays cold, even in the heat of battle. No matter what, you mustn't let your emotions get the better of you, because if that happens…" Shikamaru continued explaining, then he thought of Shidomaru's failed suicide bombing as an example. "At that moment, both of you had given in to your emotions and, as a result, both of you would be dead now if not for us" Shikamaru concluded. Neji stayed silent…

"Needless to say, if Popsicles had been patient enough to see through your impulsive strategies, he could have easily gained the upper hand in that battle. Be thankful that he doesn't know how to fight properly" Shikamaru added, pushing a nerve on the already frustrated Neji…

"He's yours for the taking if you wish!" the angered Neji said while turning his back on Shikamaru, Ino and Choji. "I will not be held responsible if anything happens!"

Neji then carefully picked Hinata up and teleported away with her…

"We should take that little girl home too, don't you think?" said Choji while looking at Kirara…

"Of course we should. She's one of our shinobis, too" Shikamaru answered…

After that, Shidomaru was chained and taken to the Village Hidden in the Leaves by Choji and Shikamaru, while Ino carried Kirara to her home. Back at the Hyuga mansion, Hinata was resting on her bed, still unconscious and recovering, while Neji was kneeling in front of Hiashi in the leader's room…

"…That concludes my mission report, Hiashi-sama" Neji concluded. Hiashi hit the floor once with his bamboo sword's tip in anger…

"What are they trying to accomplish?" Hiashi protested. "This matter is strictly a Hyuga problem! Besides, there is not much our village can learn by interrogating him except getting him to confess his criminal attempt! Why is Hokage-sama so interested in capturing him alive?"

"I-I don't know, Hiashi-sama" Neji solemnly stuttered. Even he was nervous before Hiashi's stern presence…

"Well, there is nothing we can do now. Hokage-sama is the leader of our village and as such she has the final word. We can only trust her judgement" Hiashi stated as he calmed down. Meanwhile, at the mountain with the Hokage faces carved on it was the Hokage's office, where Ino had entered…

"Ino Yamanaka reporting, Tsunade-sama!" said Ino while standing in front of the desk behind which Tsunade was sitting, Shizune standing at her right…

"Did your team capture Romeo?" Tsunade asked, jokingly referring to Shidomaru, a joke which made Ino giggle…

"Yeah, we did… and Juliet is ok, too. She just needs to rest" Ino added, playing along with Tsunade's little joke…

"Well, then it's about time to ask some questions to our pretty little suspect, isn't it?" said Tsunade while resting her elbows on the desk and her chin on her fingers…

"Shikamaru and Choji must have already left him in the prison by now" said Ino while, effectively, Shikamaru and Choji had just arrived at the prison and handed the chained Shidomaru over to the prison staff. "Soon our specialists will make him 'fess up everything. They _can't_ fail since my daddy is with them!" Ino added happily…

"But before meeting your dad, that lover boy will have come face to face with our number one interrogator and torturer" said Tsunade before letting a little grin appear on her face. "I wish you good luck, little lover boy… You're going to need it."

Waking up to find himself tied to a chair at the torture room, Shidomaru watched in horror as none other than the infamous Ibiki Morino slowly came out from the darkness in front of him with an evil grin and a sadistic look in his eyes…

"Hello, pretty lover boy!" he greeted with sarcasm. "My name is Ibiki Morino… I hope we get along" he said before muttering an evil laugh…


	7. Prisoner

"Where the fuck am I?" Shidomaru asked, but he got slapped by Ibiki in response…

"I ask the questions here!" Ibiki stated. "You are in an interrogatory! You're going to answer my every question truthfully, is that clear?"

"Ask away. I've got nothing to hide…" Shidomaru stated seriously…

"Ah, so you say you actually want to cooperate?" Ibiki said sarcastically. "_Very_ good choice! If only all of the people I interrogate were like you…"

"Well…" Shidomaru tried to say something, but quickly realized that he was going to make a question and probably get slapped again, so he thought in silence for a moment to rephrase his sentence. "Go ahead. I'll tell you anything you want to know… Actually, it may be your lucky day"

"My lucky day?" said Ibiki, who couldn't help laughing at Shidomaru's statement. "Really?"

"I can sell you all of the information I've got… _All_ of it! For a reasonable price, of course" said Shidomaru…

"What do you want in exchange for all of your information?" Ibiki asked…

"I want _her_!" Shidomaru stated seriously. "I want the woman whose unparalleled beauty resides in her immeasurable amounts of kindness! ...I want Hinata-chan"

"Hmmm, I see…" said Ibiki while rubbing his chin and looking at Shidomaru incredulously. "Sounds like an excellent deal to you, doesn't it? We get _all_ of that information for our village and you get the powerful Byakugan for _your_ village"

"My village sucks! There's no fucking point in serving a bunch of buildings, you idiot!" Shidomaru answered furiously, which earned him not a slap, but a punch. The weak Shidomaru screamed in pain…

"A village is not the buildings! It's the people that live in them! Take that into consideration before saying anything about any village!" Ibiki shouted. "We shinobis don't fight to protect the houses or the ground we stand on! We fight in order to protect those people dear to us!"

"There's no one dear to me in the Village Hidden in the Mist…" said Shidomaru, in a serious tone but not daring to raise his voice fearing that Ibiki would punch him again…

"If you haven't got any friends or loved ones, that's _your_ problem" Ibiki retorted…

"I've got only two people I love in the whole world…" said Shidomaru. "One of these two is the shy and lovely Hinata-chan, to whom my heart belongs… The other is that little girl named Kirara"

"How romantic…" Ibiki retorted with his rather unpleasant sarcasm. "What made you fall in love with Hinata? Was it _her eyes_?"

The disgusted Shidomaru didn't answer due to the fact that he was tied up and unable to defend himself in case that Ibiki got offended again and hit him, so he kept what he thought of Ibiki to himself…

"Well, let's stop playing around already. Are you after the Byakugan or not?" Ibiki asked…

"I'm not. I don't care about the Byakugan and sincerely I don't have any use for it!" Shidomaru answered, already showing signs of stress…

"Hmmm… He seems to be saying the truth, oddly enough" Ibiki thought to himself. "Is my plan to stress him out working too well? …He's being too cooperative. Why did they send him to me, then?"

After casually walking from one side of the room to another, Ibiki again turned his attention to Shidomaru…

"Ahem! ...So you're not after the Byakugan…" Ibiki continued "My sources say, however, that you're embarked in some revenge against the Hyuga clan. Is that right?"

"It's only natural to seek revenge against someone who tried to kill you, isn't it? …Especially if you've been betrayed by your own people. I wasn't even told what exactly that damn Byakugan was, back then!"

"Betrayed by your own people?" Ibiki asked…

"Yeah, but I already got my revenge on them. I recently hunted down and killed all of my partners in that mission from years ago. All that was left was going to the forest where it all began and get my revenge on the last of my enemies…" Shidomaru answered…

"…And so, you targeted Hinata" Ibiki guessed…

"Hinata-chan has nothing to do with this!" Shidomaru angrily replied. "She's not even a Hyuga! I met her by accident when I got lost in the forest surrounding your village and was about to die from the tiredness!

"Oh, really?" Ibiki asked incredulously…

"I guess nothing I say will convince you that I'm not trying to get the Byakugan for the Hidden Mist village…" Shidomaru said, frustrated…

"Calm down! We haven't jumped to conclusions yet, ok?" said Ibiki. "What really calls my attention is that you stated that she's not a Hyuga… What makes you so sure of it?"

"The members of the Hyuga clan are all inflated and boastful, not to mention cold and merciless. They've got no hearts and they only care for their pride as a ninja clan… They are… despicable" Shidomaru answered. "Hinata-chan is just the opposite. She's shy, timid and warm, and her tender heart is overflowing with compassion and kindness. There's nothing but love in her thoughts, and she brings love everywhere she goes! Everything Hinata-chan touches is blessed! Hinata-chan is…!"

"Okay, okay, I get it" Ibiki interrupted. "I can see just how obsessed you are with that girl"

"She's beautiful… Hinata-chan should be the most popular girl in the whole village… She _must_ be!" said Shidomaru with some madness in his eyes…

"Yeah, right. Whatever you say…" an annoyed Ibiki answered while looking sideways…

"I bet boys follow her everywhere!" Shidomaru continued in his delusion. "She's so beautiful I bet _every_ boy wants to tickle her feet! ...I wanna tickle Hinata-chan's beautiful feet once more…"

"Tickling feet?" said a surprised Ibiki before laughing out loud. "That's where one begins in this line of work! You've got potential to be an interrogator, kid!"

"It's not what you think…" an annoyed Shidomaru answered…

"So, tell me… If you were to torture her, what information would you try to get from her? What questions would you ask her?" Ibiki inquired with sarcasm. Shidomaru blushed and turned his gaze away…

"I want to know what she would like a boy to do on her body… If someday we slept together, I…" Shidomaru answered…

"Of course… Now it all makes sense!" Ibiki exclaimed. "You're aiming to marry her!"

"Y-Yeah… I was considering such possibility" the blushing Shidomaru admitted…

"Your plan was perfect! Once you married Hinata, the elder daughter of the clan's boss, you'd be on the succession line as her husband. So, when the current boss died, you would inherit the Hyuga clan with her and you'd take advantage of Hinata's passive nature to gain control of the clan! You're a diabolical genius!" Ibiki concluded. Ibiki's conclusion pushed Shidomaru beyond the edge of his anger…

"You… _You fuckin' shithead!_" Shidomaru screamed violently, taking Ibiki by surprise. "_She's not a Hyuga! She is Hinata-chan!_"

Before Shidomaru could keep on screaming, Ibiki punched him in the face with such force that he knocked him, chair and all, into the ground. Shidomaru's headband fell off from his forehead at this point…

"Let me remind you _who_'s boss here!" Ibiki shouted. He then kicked Shidomaru in the stomach. Shidomaru's screams were heard from outside the room as Ibiki thrashed him. Ibiki's subordinates, sitting around in that room just outside the interrogation room, were hearing the screams and grinned, one of them even laughed…

"That poor fool… I bet he made Ibiki mad" said one of them…

"Yeah… If he did so, then he's in for a little ride through hell!" said another…

After having punished Shidomaru enough, Ibiki stepped on Shidomaru's head…

"She's not a Hyuga? Her name is just Hinata? That's the most stupid lie I've ever heard! Why don't you just admit you want the Byakugan? Huh?" said Ibiki, having lost patience. Shidomaru didn't dare to answer, which made Ibiki press Shidomaru's head. "Say something! Why is Hinata Hyuga not a Hyuga? She's got Byakugan eyes! She lives on the Hyuga house! ...Hell! She's the boss's daughter, for crying out loud!"

"S-She… Hinata-chan… she's not… one of those Hyuga scum…" the weakened Shidomaru answered…

"What's the difference between Hinata and any other Hyuga?" Ibiki inquired, not believing Shidomaru…

"I already told you… Those Hyugas are… heartless monsters… but Hinata-chan… She's kind, compassionate and sweet… so adorable… lovely… I… I just wanted to…" Shidomaru answered…

"So, you say that you tried to get close to her because you _love_ her?" Ibiki asked incredulously…

"I love Hinata-chan… I love her with my whole heart…" Shidomaru answered, but Ibiki just laughed at him and pressed his head harder in response…

"That's ridiculous! Ninjas don't fall in love! We're living weapons with no emotions and we only exist as the military force of our respective nations! If you have really fallen in love with one of our shinobis, then how naive and stupid you must be! Your own people got rid of you probably because you're a useless romantic fool!" Ibiki shouted to Shidomaru "...Falling in love with the enemy… such foolishness!" he added…

"I… love… Hinata-chan…" Shidomaru managed to whisper before passing out. Ibiki stepped off Shidomaru's head, and stared at the unconscious boy with a puzzled look…

"I never stumbled upon something like this before… Was he saying the truth all along? Why did he insist in denying the evident truth that Hinata Hyuga, Hiashi's daughter, is an obvious member of the Hyuga clan? …And whenever he spoke of her… such passion… Could it be that this kid…?" the puzzled Ibiki thought to himself, but then he closed his eyes and calmed down. "I'm thinking too much… It's more than sure he's a spy or something"

Ibiki then opened his eyes again, seriously staring into empty space. "Well, whenever I fail at making anyone talk, _he_ reads the truth straight from his brain" Ibiki thought to himself.

The door of the interrogatory room opened and Ibiki's subordinates saw their boss carrying the unconscious Shidomaru out of the room…

"He won't talk! Call Inoichi!" Ibiki shouted to his subordinates. "Yes, sir!" they immediately answered.

By evening, inside of the Hyuga house, Hinata's bed in her room was now mysteriously empty. Meanwhile, Shidomaru was enclosed in a sauna-like box with only his head out. Ibiki stood in front of the machine with Inoichi Yamanaka, Ino's father…

"I questioned this boy from the Mist Village, but he just insists on the same lie over and over" Ibiki explained…

"What does he say?" Inoichi asked…

"He claims to have fallen in love with Hiashi Hyuga's elder daughter" Ibiki answered…

"Well, it could be true. You know how young ones always get dominated by their passions…" said Inoichi. "You know my teenage daughter, don't you? She's been talking an awful lot about this Sai boy for the last six months"

"Yeah, but Sai is one of our own. I find it suspicious that a boy from the Hidden Mist village suddenly fell in love with a member of the main branch of the Hyugas" said Ibiki…

"So he's after the Byakugan, huh?" said Inoichi. "Well, we'll soon find out if he's a spy or just a foolish young man in love"

Then Inoichi laid his hand on Shidomaru's head and concentrated. Soon Inoichi was literally diving into the dark depths of Shidomaru's mind, just as if he was diving into a deep underwater cave. In no time he reached Shidomaru's brain and laid his hand on it. Several big scrolls emerged from the brain and quickly started scrolling, showing Inoichi all of the information in them at an accelerated pace. Inoichi was quickly amazed, he saw the whole flashback of how Shidomaru's own team set up a trap for him and how the Hyuga clan members tried to kill him under orders from Hiashi…

"How sad… He really was betrayed by his own comrades… and in such a cruel way…" Inoichi thought to himself…

Inoichi also learned of the unknown presence that saved Shidomaru's life after he was left for dead in the ruins of the wooden house. He saw Shidomaru's bloodthirst and his desire for revenge as he killed his former teammates from that time, one by one. Then, he saw Shidomaru's memories of having entered the Hidden Leaf Forest, ready to get revenge on the Hyuga clan. The journey was difficult, however, and Shidomaru was already low in supplies after his three previous revenges. Just when Shidomaru was about to give up, he saw the beautiful Hinata sitting on that tree branch…

"That must be how he met her…" Inoichi thought to himself…

"Hinata-chan…" a sad voice sounded, which put Inoichi on alert…

"Who's there?" Inoichi shouted…

"My beloved… Hinata-chan…" the sad voice continued. It was Shidomaru's voice inside of his own mind…

"What the…? Is he still thinking about that girl despite being unconscious?" the amazed Inoichi thought to himself. "Did she really have such impact on his life? …That's not possible! They've just met each other! This memory I'm reading is from less than a month ago!"

Inoichi kept on reading Shidomaru's memories, his fond memories of his moments with Hinata. Shidomaru delighted on Hinata's sweetness. He was happy whenever she smiled, and hugged her and comforted her whenever she cried. He tickled her feet and also kissed them. He said the most beautiful things to her…

"Yes… He is, indeed, deliberately trying to make Hinata fall in love with him… but… if he's supposedly trying to get close to her for her Byakugan, then why did he put so much passion into his actions?... And… why does this happiness in his memories of her smiling overwhelm me? ...And this sadness in his memories of her crying? Why did he need to emotionally link himself so strongly with his supposed target? …Wasn't he… seeking revenge on the Hyuga clan?" Inoichi pondered…

Inoichi then quickly backtracked and read again the memory where Shidomaru was thrashed by the Hyugas…

"Of course… His fixed idea about the Hyuga clan being a group of cruel people didn't let him notice that the shy and timid Hinata was indeed a Hyuga, not even after having noticed that her eyes are white…" Inoichi thought…

Inoichi then resumed where he had left off, and soon he stumbled upon Shidomaru's memories of Kirara…

"Who's that little girl?" Inoichi wondered…

"That's a great idea! Whenever we come here, let's play being a family!" said Kirara in one of Shidomaru's memories. Inoichi then saw Kirara hugging Hinata affectionately and calling her "Mommy!" Then Kirara would say "Daddy! Come! Let's hug all together!" Inoichi was moved…

"This boy… He has a hidden desire of having a family… And… by this point, Hinata had made him so happy he had already given up on his revenge on the Hyuga clan…" the amazed Inoichi thought to himself…

"Kirara-chan?" Shidomaru's sad voice sounded again. "Is that you, Kirara-chan?"

Inoichi carefully looked around himself, alert to any potential attack on Shidomaru's part, but nothing happened…

"I remember… We were playing… we were supposedly a family… I played the father… and had a beautiful wife and daughter… I would have never known this sensation if not for Hinata-chan… I would have never felt… loved…" Shidomaru's sad voice echoed inside of his mind. "But… this feeling… something's not right… I feel like there's something I can't remember… or is it something I _mustn't_ remember?"

Inoichi then saw Shidomaru's violent encounters with Kiba and Neji. "I'll do whatever it takes to protect her from dangerous strangers such as you!" said Kiba. "A rogue ninja who deserted his own hidden village and the heiress of the Hyuga clan? That's inconceivable! Such kind of romance is… it is… it is _forbidden_!" said Neji. Then Hinata is seen crying, which fills Shidomaru with a deep sadness…

"Let me introduce this lady to you" Neji suddenly said in one of the memories. "This person is Hinata Hyuga, elder daughter of Lord Hiashi Hyuga, who is the boss of all the Hyuga clan."

"She is… Hinata-chan is… a Hyuga?" Shidomaru's sad voice echoed again all over inside his own mind.

Inoichi again carefully looked around, but soon a noise made him look forward again. Inoichi was horrified when he saw what looked like Shidomaru's naked body slowly emerging from his own brain, thought only from the waist up. That Shidomaru had tears running down his cheeks, and a devastated and desolated look in his tearful eyes…

"Please answer me, mister…" he said in a sad and trembling voice. "Is Hinata-chan really… a member of the Hyuga clan? …Is her full name …Hinata Hyuga?"

"Yes… Her full name is Hinata Hyuga?" Inoichi answered…

"But… How? …How can such a wonderful person…? How can such a sweet, tender, lovely woman be… a member of that Hyuga clan?" the crying Shidomaru wondered, puzzled…

"People are different. Even inside the same family, they may have drastic differences" Inoichi answered…

"But then… That mission… The one where I had to retrieve the Byakugan eyes for my village…" said a horrified Shidomaru…

"That was all a ruse on your former classmates' part. I read it in your memories already. It seems you weren't very well-received in your home Village Hidden in the Mist" said Inoichi…

"But… My village and others might really want those damned eyes… the Byakugan…" said Shidomaru…

"Yes… But the members of secondary branches of the Hyuga clan have a cursed mark on them that destroys their eyes when they die, so it's impossible to take the Byakugan from them. That's a measure the Hyugas invented in order to protect their valuable Kekkei Genkai" Inoichi explained. "Everyone knows by now that the only way to get the Byakugan is to capture a member of the main branch… such as the boss or one of his daughters"

"Hinata-chan…" said the horrified Shidomaru just as he realized the horrible truth. He then clutched his own head "I see… I get it now! I now understand why that dog-boy and those Hyuga bastards don't want foreign ninjas near Hinata-chan…" he continued saying as he grew more and more mentally unstable. Inoichi could feel the disturbances all around himself…

"Hey! Calm down! We're not going to hurt you anymore!" Inoichi said to Shidomaru…

"It's not that" Shidomaru answered. "But… all of the other nations… They all want to hurt Hinata-chan! The whole rest of the world is against my dear Hinata-chan!"

The disturbances in Shidomaru's mind became more violent, overwhelming a terrified Inoichi…

"How can they be so insensitive? How can they be so cruel? How could anyone even _think_ of hurting a poor little shy beautiful girl just for… such a fuckin' stupid reason?" Shidomaru screamed in horror.

The next image that came to Shidomaru's mind was that of Hinata screaming in pain as an evil sinister figure seemingly tried to pluck her Byakugan eyes out of their eyeholes. Such image altered Shidomaru to the point that he let out a horrible scream that resounded inside his whole mind and caused a tempest. Inoichi forced himself out of Shidomaru's mind, and once back on the physical world he kneeled down, with a hand on his head…

"Are you alright, Inoichi?" said Ibiki as he crouched beside Inoichi…

"He is saying the truth… He loves that girl Hinata with incredible passion…" said Inoichi, still in shock…

"But… That can't be! He's a shinobi from an enemy nation! I'd understand it if he was from the Village Hidden in the Sand, but…" said a surprised Ibiki…

"It's true. I saw it…" said Inoichi, trying to recover from his recent experience. "He has long ago stopped working for the Village Hidden in the Mist, and he means no harm to that girl"

"So, he _really_ loves Hiashi's daughter…" said Ibiki with a saddened expression while looking at the still unconscious Shidomaru. "The poor foolish boy…"

"However, his mind is very unstable due to experiences he went through in his life. He may not be an enemy, but it's not safe to keep him inside our village" said Inoichi…

It was night already…

"Well, it's very late. Let's go home and get some sleep" said Ibiki. "Tomorrow morning we'll carry him far away from the village and ditch him somewhere"

And so, the tired men all walked out of the room, leaving Shidomaru encased there. When everyone left the room, a hidden presence finally showed itself, timidly appearing from behind a pillar. Shidomaru was barely regaining consciousness when he suddenly started feeling something…

"This warm, tender sensation… I've felt it somewhere else…" Shidomaru thought to himself, still unable to see or speak. "Who are you? …You are… Are you the same person who saved my life after that burning wooden house collapsed on me?"

Shidomaru then slowly started to open his eyes and realized someone was helping him get out of the machine he was into. Once he could stand up, he blinked once and his blurry sight cleared, perfectly seeing the person who rescued him…

"Hinata-chan?" said the surprised Shidomaru…

"Shidomaru-kun!" exclaimed Hinata with tears in her eyes…

"Poor Hinata-chan…" said a sad Shidomaru, then he tried to hug her to comfort her, but Hinata refused…

"No, Shidomaru-kun… W-We're not destined to be together… You must escape… You must escape this village now! We must never see each other again" said a sad Hinata…

"Hinata-chan! What are you saying? We _must_ be together!" Shidomaru argued…

"No, Shidomaru-kun" said Hinata while shaking her head in denial. "T-This is farewell… I will always treasure the moments we shared together… I-I promise you will always have a place in my heart"

"Let's elope!" Shidomaru suddenly proposed. This made Hinata gasp and blush. "Let's go far away and start a clan of our own!" Shidomaru continued…

"Shidomaru-kun, I…" said the blushing Hinata while avoiding visual contact with Shidomaru. "I-I can't… Almost all of my friends live here. I can't just abandon them"

But just when Shidomaru was about to answer, all of the personnel that had just left the room suddenly came back into it and saw both Shidomaru and Hinata…

"Hold it right there!" one of the men shouted, and all of them soon cornered both Hinata and Shidomaru…

"Watch out! He's free!" said one of them. "Who's with him?" said another. "Isn't that Hinata? That girl from the Hyuga clan he had been harassing?"

Ibiki then stepped forth. "What's the meaning of this, young lady?" he asked angrily. "You're not releasing this dangerous criminal, aren't you?"

"_Leave her alone!_" Shidomaru furiously shouted as he positioned himself in front of Hinata so as to act as a shield for her…

"I see… So _that_'s what's going on here, huh? You two were cooperating all along!" Ibiki accused while pointing with his finger towards Hinata…

"_Noooooo!_" Hinata screamed in horror. An enraged Shidomaru started to perform had signs while his chakra level was quickly rising…

"I've had enough of you! _Eat this shit!_" Shidomaru violently shouted as he released a massive avalanche on all of the men…

"_Noooo!_ Shidomaru-kun, please _stop!_" Hinata screamed, but it was too late. The massive quantities of snow hit all of the men full-force and buried them. The alarm started to sound…

"Now's our chance! Let's escape this shit of a village!" Shidomaru said while grabbing Hinata by the hand and pulling her arm, believing Hinata would go with him, but she refused to move from where she was standing…

"Shidomaru-kun! S-Stop! Y-You're hurting me!" said Hinata, refusing to escape with Shidomaru. Horrified at having heard Hinata say that he was hurting her, Shidomaru immediately let go of her hand and turned around to face her…

"I'm sorry… But we must escape _now_!" Shidomaru urged…

"I-I'm staying here…" Hinata replied. "I'm not going to abandon my friends, my people… my village…"

As Shidomaru stood there, not knowing how to convince Hinata to elope with him, a wounded Ibiki somehow managed to stick his head and an arm out of the snow…

"You'll be accused of treason, Hyuga girl! Are you listening? You're a traitor!" Ibiki shouted. Hinata screamed in horror. To make things worse, reinforcements arrived to capture both Shidomaru and Hinata…

"No… It can't end this way!" Shidomaru thought to himself as he saw Hinata's suffering. "This village may be shit, but my dear Hinata-chan still loves it deeply… I can't allow things to end up like this for her!"

Suddenly, Shidomaru used his jutsu to fabricate a kunai made out of ice and grabbed Hinata from behind, positioning his ice kunai near her throat and taking her hostage…

"I've been manipulating this silly innocent girl all along!" Shidomaru screamed to the reinforcement unit. "It all worked according to my plan! I knew she would be so stupid to come and free me!"

"Let her go!" one of the reinforcement ninjas shouted…

"No way! I'm now using this naive pawn as a human shield to cover my escape! Everything went according to _my_ plan!" Shidomaru shouted. "Yes! I am the _only _mastermind behind my revenge on that filthy Hyuga clan! And now that I've used this naive innocent girl to see your pathetic village from the inside, I can retreat and come up with a plan to crush you all _like insects!_

"Shidomaru-kun… Are you doing this to… cast all of the blame on yourself?" an astonished Hinata thought to herself, she was then moved and started to cry, which also fit the scene Shidomaru was creating since Hinata was supposedly being her hostage…

"…And now, I'll take my leave!" Shidomaru concluded…

"_Stop!_" the men shouted while charging at Shidomaru, but it was too late as Shidomaru teleported himself and his hostage in a whirlwind of snow…

"_After them!_" the leader of the reinforcements shouted as all of the ninjas made their way out of the complex they were in, all while Shidomaru escaped the village with Hinata laying on his arms, under a starry night and a full moon…


	8. Execution

By morning, Shidomaru had successfully eluded his pursuers and escaped with his beloved Hinata in tow. She was unharmed since Shidomaru was just pretending he was taking her hostage. They had gone outside of the Hidden Leaf Forest, to a nearby town. They were both sitting at a table inside of a café, both silent. Hinata was visibly upset…

"Hinata-chan? …How are you feeling?" Shidomaru asked timidly…

"…I-I'm fine" Hinata answered insincerely. After some more minutes of silence, Shidomaru sighed...

"W-What's wrong?" Hinata then asked…

"Somehow, we did it… We eloped… We can now start a new life together, just you and me. I… I thought you'd…" said Shidomaru…

"Y-You thought I'd be happy, right?" said Hinata…

"…Yeah" Shidomaru answered in a discouraged tone. Hinata smiled at him…

"I-I know how you feel, Shidomaru-kun, but… T-The world isn't just the two of us!" said Hinata…

"Weren't you unhappy in that village? Wasn't that what you tried to say to me in our first conversations? About your evil father… and about that special person who rejected your feelings and all of that…"

"I-It's a bit sad sometimes…" Hinata answered while avoiding looking at Shidomaru's eyes. "But… many of my friends live in that village as well… Kiba-kun, Shino-kun, Kurenai-sensei… Kirara-chan too… I couldn't imagine my life without them… I-I just can't imagine my life without the Village Hidden in the Leaves!"

Shidomaru didn't answer, but Hinata could see that he was very disappointed…

"Um… I-I'm sorry, Shidomaru-kun… This is as far as we got" Hinata said…

"Do you want to go back to your village?" Shidomaru asked. "Since I've put up that act about manipulating you and then taking you hostage, they should welcome you with open arms… That won't be the case for me, though…"

Hinata looked at a saddened Shidomaru, taking pity on him, but said nothing about it. After a while she got up…

"Good bye, Shidomaru-kun… I-I'm going back to my village. I hope we meet again someday…" Hinata said, and then she smiled. "…Then you'll introduce me to your new girlfriend" she added…

"I _won't_ have another girlfriend! My heart belongs and will always belong to you… Hinata of the Beautiful Feet" a depressed Shidomaru exclaimed while resting the upper half of his face on the palms of his hands…

Hinata hesitated at the sight of such a sad Shidomaru, but she left nevertheless, running towards her home. Shidomaru didn't bother to look back and watch her as she eventually disappeared into the distance…

"Breaking up with your girlfriend at a café, huh? I've seen that a million times…" said a middle-aged male waiter who passed by…

"Shut the fuck up…" the depressed Shidomaru answered…

Hinata was already out of the town and could see the Hidden Leaf Forest in the distance. She also saw two ninjas of her own village. Relieved, she smiled happily…

"Heeeeey!" she shouted to the two Leaf ninjas, waving a hand at them while running towards them. She finally reached them…

"Um… I-I managed to escape that Mist ninja… Please tell everyone I'm fine and that I'll return to the village very soo…" but before Hinata could finish her sentence, the two ninjas of her own village rudely got hold of her, and one of them put handcuffs on her wrists…

"You're under arrest, Hinata Hyuga!" said one of them…

"_What?_ B-But… Why?" a surprised and confused Hinata asked…

"You betrayed your own village by letting a dangerous criminal escape" said the other one…

"D-Didn't you see he even took me hostage?" said Hinata…

"Why were you in the interrogatory room in the first place?" said one of the two…

"B-But…!" Hinata tried to reply…

"You were cooperating with the enemy! There's no other possible explanation! You're coming with us!" said the ninja holding her…

"_Nooooooo! Save meeee! Shidomaru-kuuuuun!_" Hinata screamed as she was dragged by her two captors towards her village.

Back at the café, the table where Shidomaru had been was now empty. Shortly after, Hinata was brought back to her own village still in handcuffs. Everyone in the streets watched in surprise. Kirara was there too, watching everything while hiding behind a pillar and crying. Hinata was finally taken to prison and was thrown into a temporary cell where she was locked up…

"W-Why are you doing this? Shidomaru-kun is a good person! H-He's not trying to hurt our village!" Hinata exclaimed desperately…

"Have you forgotten what he did to your own teammate? And what about the interrogatory personnel who got hurt by his avalanche jutsu?" one of the guards replied…

"B-But…" she said while lowering her gaze in sadness…

"I shall not tolerate any excuses!" a stern voice exclaimed, a voice too well-known to the poor Hinata. Just hearing it made her gasp and sweat in fear. It was none other than Lord Hiashi Hyuga, with Hanabi Hyuga at his right side and Neji Hyuga at his left side…

"F-F-Father!" the terrified Hinata exclaimed…

"This is the final humiliation to our clan… You were already a weakling, a disgrace who ashamed all of us… and now, you betray our village by making deals with a rogue ninja who escaped from an enemy village" Hiashi coldly stated without showing any feelings for his own daughter…

"You're a disgrace, onee-chan! I'm ashamed that I have an older sister like you!" said Hanabi…

"B-B-But… I…" the nervous and trembling Hinata tried to reply…

"_Silence!_" Hiashi screamed, frightening Hinata to her very core. Not only Hinata was scared, but also Neji and even the prison guards and everyone around Hiashi except for Hanabi. "I have already ordered your execution for tomorrow at evening"

Hinata was devastated. Her own father whom she loved dearly had already decided to kill her. Hinata started to cry bitterly and desperately. Such scene moved the hearts of the people present, saddening not only Neji but also the prison personnel. The only two ones who stayed cold and emotionless towards the poor suffering Hinata were Hiashi and Hanabi…

"_Why, father? Why did you kill me?_" Hinata screamed. Her face was completely soaked in tears, her voice was trembling. Hiashi just turned his back on his own elder daughter and started to leave, shortly after followed by an indifferent Hanabi. A sad Neji stared at his poor desperate crying cousin…

"I'll crush that Shidomaru lowlife who played with your poor innocent heart, Hinata-sama… I swear it over my pride as a Hyuga!" Neji exclaimed.

"Neji! No talking with traitors!" Hiashi shouted from the exit. Neji had no choice but to obey and follow Hiashi, leaving Hinata to her agony…

"What would Naruto-kun do?" the crying Hinata wondered…

Meanwhile, at the Hokage's office…

"This is just plain wrong, Tsunade-sama!" Sakura protested. "Why are you allowing that crazy old Hyuga boss to get his way? Hinata is not only our friend, but she's _his own daughter_, for crying out loud!"

"There's nothing we can do about it… Hinata Hyuga released a dangerous criminal from our prison. She put all of us at risk" Tsunade coldly stated while looking through the large window behind her desk…

"I understand that part! But I don't get why her father must execute her for that! Can't we just send a squad to re-capture that rogue Mist shinobi?" Sakura questioned…

"Yes, we _are_ going to do so. However, the decision of execution is an internal matter of the Hyuga clan. They decide how to punish their own members" Tsunade answered…

"But as the Hokage you can stop them, Tsunade-sama!" Sakura exclaimed. "There should be a law against parents sentencing their own children to death!"

"Hinata Hyuga put the lives of the entire village at risk just for the sake of a single criminal! She's a traitor and will be treated as such!" Tsunade shouted, making Sakura shut up…

Suddenly, someone literally brought down the door. "_Grandma Tsunadeeeee!_" an enraged Naruto screamed as he ran up to Tsunade, turned her around and violently grabbed her by the shirt…

"_Naruto!_" Sakura screamed…

"Naruto-kun! Let go of Tsunade-sama!" Shizune shouted…

"_Why the bloody hell_ are you allowing a friend to be killed? I don't care what she's done, but Hinata is one of my friends! Believe it!" Naruto screamed violently…

"_Shannaro!_" Sakura screamed as she punched Naruto full-force and sent him through the wall. "How many times do I have to tell you to respect the Hokage?" Sakura said angrily…

Naruto got up from among the debris. "That old hag is _not_ a Hokage if she's allowing our friends to be killed because of who-knows-what! Believe it!" He exclaimed furiously…

"You're _still_ oblivious, aren't you?" Sakura answered…

"Huh? What do you mean, Sakura-chan?" the confused Naruto asked…

"Up until recently, Hinata Hyuga had been meeting secretly with a rogue shinobi who escaped from the Village Hidden in the Mist. According to the results of the interrogatory, this shinobi bears a grudge against the Hyuga clan and strives to destroy it. We were able to capture him and interrogate him, but Hinata secretly snuck into the prison and set him free" Tsunade explained…

"Hinata did that? I don't believe it!" Naruto answered. "And why is that Mist ninja so dangerous?"

"Do you remember what happened to Kiba? That Mist shinobi did it" Sakura answered. Naruto then remembered Kiba and Akamaru gravely wounded and hospitalized and his rage flared up again…

"Not only that, but he also gravely wounded the interrogatory personnel when Hinata set him free, right before escaping" Shizune added…

"Since Hinata had released such evil on our village, she was labeled as a traitor. Her father was so enraged that he decided to execute her himself" Tsunade concluded…

"_That can't be true! Hinata couldn't have done this by her own will!_ That son of a bitch from the Mist village must have manipulated her somehow! Believe it!" Naruto screamed furiously…

"That's a possibility, but even if we declare Hinata innocent, her father is going to execute her anyway" Tsunade sighed…

Naruto's breathing got so furious that it could be heard out of the room. "_I'm gonna kick that Mist mothafucker's sorry ass until it falls apart! Believe it!_" Naruto screamed towards the sky at the top capacity of his lungs. After that, he ran off in a rage…

At his sister's vet clinic, Kiba was still lying on the bed from the wounds he received from his fight with Shidomaru, and Akamaru rested just beside the bed. Kiba had already heard the news and looked through the window, bothered…

At the Aburame house, Shino was standing with his back against the wall. Little we could know about what he was thinking since almost his whole body is covered and he was as silent and bitter as always, but his gaze was pointing particularly downwards…

Elsewhere, the members of Team Asuma were all sulking. Ino and Choji looked sad, but Shikamaru seemed indifferent…

"It's like… not fair! Why does Hinata have to be killed?" Ino complained…

"It makes me so sad that this bag of fries alone won't calm me down" said Choji while devouring fries intending to soothe his sadness that way…

"It can't be helped" Shikamaru yawned, seemingly not caring…

"How can you say that so calmly?" Ino protested…

"Hinata let her emotions get the best of her, and this is the result of it. Shinobis mustn't get carried away by their feelings. That's what marks the difference between life and death in our world" Shikamaru answered coldly…

"B-But… Even so…!" Ino protested further, but couldn't find the words to describe what she was feeling…

At the training grounds, Neji was sitting with his elbows resting on his legs, and his forehead resting on the palms of his hands, visibly disturbed…

"Don't be so down, Neji. We'll recapture that rogue Hidden Mist shinobi and your cousin will be pardoned. Everything's gonna be alright!" said Ten Ten while laying a hand on Neji's shoulder trying to cheer him up…

"That's not the problem, Ten Ten" the disturbed Neji answered. "Because Hinata-sama has been labeled a traitor, the Hyuga clan has suffered the worst humiliation in its history. That's why Hiashi-sama is going to give Hinata-sama the ultimate punishment"

"But… If we can somehow prove that Hidden Mist bastard was manipulating Hinata all along, maybe your uncle will forgive her!" Ten Ten exclaimed...

Neji slowly raised his face, his furious Byakugan eyes with veins bulging could be seen between the fingers of his trembling hands. "I'm going to kill that Hidden Mist scum…" he furiously muttered…

"By the way, where's Lee?" Ten Ten asked while looking around…

Meanwhile, on the streets, a sad Kirara was approached by three evil boys of about Neji's age…

"Hey! You're that crazy girl who's obsessed with Neji's cousin, aren't you?" said one of them, but Kirara timidly turned her gaze away and stayed silent, fiddling with her fingers just like Hinata would…

"Tsk… You've even copied that annoying finger stuff from her" said another…

"And you wear your headband as a necklace just like her… Heck! You're even using an old cloth of hers!" said the third one…

"T-This sweater is my prized treasure… It belonged to my idol Hinata-sama… She's the most tender and kind-hearted person in the whole world" Kirara said timidly…

"Awww… How cute and _stupid_!" one of the boys retorted. "Ninjas ain't tender cute li'l kitties! _Real_ shinobis are emotionless, battle-hardened assassins! We don't kiss and hug! We fight and complete missions! All that shit about love and hearts and teddy bears is just useless sick crap!"

"E-Each person has his own opinion…" Kirara answered, but she was rudely grabbed by the three boys in response…

"Listen, you love freak! Your oh-so-loved Hinata is going to be executed for betraying the village! Do you want to be executed for being like her?" another boy shouted to Kirara…

"Eeek! Y-You're hurting me! Please stop!" Kirara screamed, but those boys threw her to the ground…

"This is what we think about your stupid Hinata-sama!" another of the boys exclaimed, then they picked up some dirt and mud and started to dirt Hinata's old sweater that Kirara was wearing…

"_Noooo!_ That's the sweater Hinata-sama used to wear! Please stop!" Kirara screamed, but the boys reveled in her suffering and even started to hit her…

"_This_ is what ninjas are really like! _Die with your dear Hinata!_" one of the boys shouted while he prepared to punch Kirara on the head…

"_Dynamic Entry!_" shouted none other than Rock Lee as he entered the scene with a flying kick to the head of that boy, knocking him out and saving Kirara.

"Hey! Isn't that the hot-blooded idiot Lee?" said one of the remaining two boys as he and his partner got up…

"Here's another one who shouldn't call himself a ninja" said the other boy…

Lee turned around and used his favorite battle stance. "Come to me…" he said to the two boys…

When Kirara looked at Lee, her eyes got sparkling. "It's Rock Lee! So cool!" she thought to herself…

"You're not that strong! Just a stupid hot-blooded dreamer!" One of the boys exclaimed, and then the two attacked Lee at the same time. In the duration of a blink, the two boys were knocked out cold by Lee in a single hit each…

"Is _that_ all you've got? You've disappointed me!" Lee complained. "I thought you cowards would at least serve as a light training…"

Lee then turned his attention to Kirara, He walked up to her and crouched down beside her. "Are you alright?" Lee asked while offering his hand in order to help Kirara let up. Kirara blushed and nodded in the same way as Hinata would, she then grabbed Lee's hand and he helped her get up…

"It's cowardly to attack a helpless little girl in groups! _They_'re the ones who shouldn't call themselves ninjas" Lee stated…

"Um… Thank you, Lee onii-san" said Kirara while fiddling with her fingers. The fact that Kirara called him onii-san made Lee confused…

"Lee onii-san?" said Lee…

"Yeah… You defended me, so you're now my big brother" Kirara said with a happy blushing face. The confused Lee was feeling somewhat proud…

"I don't know what's happening, but… _All right!_ I'll be pleased to be your big brother, Little Sister-san!" Lee said with enthusiasm, even though he didn't even know the name of the girl he had just saved…

"My name is Kirara Itoshiki, pleased to meet you!" Kirara answered happily…

Elsewhere, Sai was drawing, his otherwise emotionless face showing an almost imperceptible hint of sadness. "What should I do in such a complex situation as this?" he thought to himself as he finally seemed to complete his drawing of Hiashi preparing to execute his daughter Hinata with a katana, but then he started to draw Shidomaru into the picture as well. "That Hidden Mist shinobi… Shidomaru…"

Kakashi was, as always, with his back against a pillar while reading one of the late Jiraiya's erotic novels, Yamato and Guy were standing around near him…

"So? ...What do you think, Kakashi-senpai?" Yamato asked…

"I think this is all a fucking mess…" Kakashi replied without stopping reading for even half a second…

Far away from the Village Hidden in the Leaves, in a grassy field, Shidomaru was walking away…

"_Stop!_" Naruto's voice shouted from the distance behind him. Shidomaru came to a sudden stop as Naruto ran towards him. Naruto finally stopped at 2 or 3 meters from Shidomaru to catch his breath…

"Where the bloody hell do you think you're going?" Naruto asked furiously without having recovered all of his breath…

Shidomaru then slowly turned around, with a look of madness in his eyes and without his Hidden Mist headband (which he had lost at the interrogatory room when he was being beaten up by Ibiki). "I am going to destroy the Village Hidden in the Mist" Shidomaru answered in a cold and sinister tone…

What Naruto had just seen left him horrified as Sasuke suddenly came to his mind, turning around in the same way, with the same mad look in his eyes and speaking with the same cold and sinister tone, saying "I am going to destroy the Village Hidden in the Leaves" much like Shidomaru had just done…

"…Revenge?" the horrified Naruto said…

Shidomaru fully turned around to face Naruto. "Yes… revenge. They loathed me from the very beginning! They've always labeled me as an outcast! They despised me and I never knew why! They even got rid of me!" he answered furiously…

"Your own village got rid of you?" the astounded Naruto asked…

"Yes… That's why I'm going to slaughter every last one of them!" Shidomaru answered in a trembling madness, which again reminded Naruto of Sasuke…

"_Don't do it!_" Naruto suddenly shouted…

"_Why not?_" Shidomaru shouted back…

"Because revenge only brings more revenge, and it wraps around in an infinite circle of hatred! Believe it!" Naruto answered. Having heard Naruto saying that, Shidomaru suddenly remembered that Hinata told him the exact same thing, and that she said she had heard it from a very special person. Shidomaru's eyes widened in astonishment…

"Sasuke… He was a close friend of mine… but he fled my village seeking revenge, and for that he cut all of his bonds with me and our other friends… I promised I would take him back to the village… but…" said Naruto before pausing so he could hold back his tears, which he successfully did. "He was like a brother to me… but he lost himself in the darkness of revenge… _and I couldn't save him!_"

Shidomaru grew progressively more astonished as Naruto kept on talking, remembering all of the things that Hinata had previously told him back when they used to meet at the clearing in the forest…

"It's my guess you were going to get revenge on Hinata's family as well… Give up on that! You'll only end up destroying yourself and everyone who loves you! Believe it!" Naruto continued…

"…Everyone who loves me?" said Shidomaru while lowering his gaze and closing his eyes, and soon after he started to laugh maniacally. "You _fuckin' retard! No one_ loves me! I'm _alone_ in this rotten world!" he screamed…

"Is that what you think?" Naruto asked seriously…

Shidomaru looked at Naruto to the eyes with a malicious look and an evil grin. "Hey you, blondie! What's your name?"

"My name is Naruto Uzumaki, future Hokage… I never stop fighting until I get what I want! Believe it!" Naruto answered…

Now everything was clear to Shidomaru. The blonde boy in front of him was none other than that special person Hinata was always talking about…

"I am Shidomaru… a shinobi from the Hidden Mist… I see now… You must be that 'special person' Hinata-chan was always talking about…"

"Special person?" said a rather confused Naruto…

"Yeah… That person so special to her… The very same special person who betrayed her feelings by _going with another woman!_" Shidomaru answered furiously…

"_You_ were the one who betrayed Hinata's feelings and played with her heart! Don't confuse me with mind games!" Naruto shouted…

"Mind games?" a confused Shidomaru suddenly said in a rather comical moment while a teardrop appeared in the back of his head. "I don't remember having said anything so complex so as to confuse you. You _really_ are a retard, aren't you?"

"Don't mess with me! Believe it!" Naruto answered, comically angry…

After that, seriousness was restored to the story. Shidomaru clenched his fist and teeth…

"My revenge will also fall upon you… Prepare to die, Naruto Uzumaki" Shidomaru growled as his rage was building up…

"Why are you so mad at me now?" an annoyed and confused Naruto answered. "Well, no matter. I don't like to turn down challenges, and I was supposed to kick your sorry ass anyway. You're gonna lose! Believe it!"

Both combatants started the battle by performing hand signs…

"_Kagebunshin no jutsu!_" Naruto shouted and created four Kagebunshin. The five Narutos then charged at Shidomaru at the same time…

"Suiton: _Koori Senbon!_" Shidomaru shouted and bombarded Naruto and his Kagebunshin with ice needles. He was able to destroy two of them, but the other three spread out and attacked from different angles…

"Suiton: _Yukibunshin no jutsu!_" Shidomaru quickly shouted and created a clone out of snow to make a quick substitution. The three Narutos ended up just destroying the snow figure, with Shidomaru out of their circle performing more hand signs…

"Suiton: _Tsumetai Arashi!_" Shidomaru shouted next, releasing a fierce blizzard. The real Naruto was able to dodge it on time, but his clones got frozen by it, causing them to explode in puffs of smoke just like every Kagebunshin that is destroyed…

"What a pathetic power! All you do is making popsicles! Believe it!" Naruto complained…

"They're not popsicles, you _baka_!" Shidomaru answered, comically angry. "It's 'Suiton' or 'Water Style Jutsu' at a sub-zero temperature. In other words, it's ice, the most beautiful element of them all!"

"It's the most boring element of them all!" Naruto answered while putting both of his hands on the back of his head in a relaxed attitude. "Wind is the best by far! Believe it!"

"Wind is so _not_ interesting!" Shidomaru answered back. "The most beautiful ones are ice, water and fire, in that order… and _maybe_ shadow"

"Well, then we're going to determine who's right by the result of this battle! Bring it on, Popsicles!" said Naruto…

"Don't change the subject of this battle… And my name is _Shidomaru_" Shidomaru angrily answered with a twitching eyebrow…

"Don't correct me! You've got no sense of humor! Believe it!" a comically angered Naruto answered, but Shidomaru just started to perform hand signs in response to that…

"Suiton: _Koori no Uzu!_" Shidomaru shouted, releasing his icy version of his village's Giant Vortex Jutsu. Naruto narrowly escaped the attack which devastated everything on its path, creating a frozen line of destruction…

"After all, you're just like every other shinobi of the Hidden Mist village, except that your water jutsu are chilled. Believe it!" said Naruto before performing the same hand sign as the last time. "_Tajuu Kagebunshin no jutsu!_" he then created massive quantities of clones of himself…

"You say _my_ power is boring? _Your_ only power seems to be to multiply, just like a plague!" Shidomaru answered while performing more hand signs. "Well, I'm not one to talk, actually" he added when he finished performing hand signs. The water in the air then condensed into massive quantities of liquid bodies which soon gained shape and solidified into snow figures, which then turned into many Yukibunshin. "Shall this turn into a battle of armies?"

"Not bad…" Naruto said with a grin. "But I'm gonna win!" The clones together with the real Naruto then organized themselves in groups of two, one concentrating chakra in the palm of his hand and the other spinning it at a high speed…

"Child's play!" Shidomaru answered while he and all of his clones started to perform hand signs at the same time. The Narutos all shouted as every group of two charged towards the Shidomarus…

"Suiton:_ Nankyoku no Arashi!_" all of the Shidomarus shouted at the same time (which would translate as 'Antarctic Storm'). What Shidomaru did was basically an en-masse version of Koori no Uzu, which turned into one hell of a snowstorm, so despite the fact there were considerably more Narutos than Shidomarus, most of the Narutos exploded in puffs of smoke far before reaching their targets, but even such terrifying massive blizzard didn't stop a fraction of the army of Narutos from reaching the Shidomarus with their technique ready…

"_Rasengan!_" all of the Narutos started to shout once each group of two reached its target, crashing the chakra spinning ball in the palms of their hands into the bodies of the Shidomarus. Surprises were not over yet, since each Shidomaru hit exploded with tremendous force into shrapnel of ice and snow, which also killed the clones that successfully hit them. After all that mess, only the real Naruto remained, though slightly hurt by the ice explosion of the snow clone he had just hit…

"What the hell was that?" Naruto exclaimed in confusion…

"Yukidama Bunshin… or Snow Bomb Clone" Shidomaru answered, suddenly appearing behind Naruto…

However, Naruto's reaction was to scream and desperately turn around whilst keeping his distance from Shidomaru. "You shouldn't sneak behind people like that! Believe it!" Naruto exclaimed with a hand on his chest…

"Uh… That's _far_ from the reaction I'd expect from a ninja" said the disappointed Shidomaru…

After that, Naruto suddenly regained seriousness and smiled at Shidomaru. "I was expecting to defeat you more easily… Not bad at all, Popsicles! Believe it!"

"Flattery will get you nowhere. And for the last time, my name is _Shidomaru_… Not that your puny brain can process that" Shidomaru answered, he then performed another hand sign. "_Die_… you, who have betrayed poor Hinata-chan's pure heart"

Naruto's smile was quickly wiped off his face and he now was glaring at Shidomaru with a serious but puzzled glare. "I betrayed Hinata? What does he mean by that? He must be trying to confuse me… Either that or…"

Naruto suddenly pulled off a huge evil grin. "So… You like Hinata, don't you?" he then performed a hand sign… "_Oiroke no Jutsu!_"

Shidomaru was horrified. In a puff of smoke Naruto had disappeared, and instead of him there was… Hinata?


	9. Leaf

**In these final five chapters****, readers will start to see just how much Bleach has influenced me ;P**

"This… This can't be!" said an astonished Shidomaru. Hinata just timidly shrunk herself and fiddled with her fingers as she always does while glancing at Shidomaru with sweet eyes. As if hypnotized, Shidomaru slowly walked up to her. When he got close enough, Hinata made an odd evil grin and suddenly threw a rather manly punch strong enough to decapitate Shidomaru, but he turned out to be a Yukibunshin that soon crumbled into a pile of snow…

"Yukibunshin?" the confused Hinata said with Naruto's voice while blinking. He was suddenly stabbed on the back with an ice spear. Shidomaru was behind him…

"Yeah, right! As if I could fall for such a stupid trick!" Shidomaru shouted. The Henge no Jutsu ended and Naruto returned to his real form in a puff of smoke. Naruto slowly turned his face around to look at Shidomaru behind him, his mouth was bleeding…

"You're… pretty cold… Believe it…" the wounded Naruto managed to mutter…

Shidomaru's face had an evil grin on it, as if he had already won, but Naruto suddenly shouted and turned around, not minding having a spear of ice through his body, and knocked Shidomaru into the ground with a single punch. As Shidomaru was lying on the grass, Naruto took his time to pull the spear out of his body and angrily thrust it into the ground…

Shidomaru then sat up on the grass, his cheek inflamed, his mouth bleeding, and he even spat some pieces of molar. "W-_What_ are you?" he screamed in terror. "Are you insensitive to pain?"

"Nope… That ice spear hurt like hell, believe it… But nothing you do to me is going to make my determination yield! If you rip my arms off, I'll kick you! If you rip my legs off, I'll headbutt you! If you decapitate me, my spirit's gonna keep fighting you without the body! _That_'s Naruto Uzumaki of the Hidden Leaf for you!" Naruto answered…

"What monstrous strength! …It really fits his under-developed brain" the terrified Shidomaru thought to himself, he then closed the eye opposite to where he had been punched, finding he could still see. "I'm surprised I've still got both eyes…" Shidomaru thought…

Shidomaru then slowly got up. "Not only did you betray Hinata-chan… You even dared to use her beautiful form…" he said to Naruto…

Naruto just glared at Shidomaru with a furious look. Shidomaru then started to laugh softly, which soon turned into a maniacal laughter…

"I'm gonna destroy the Village Hidden in the Mist that seven years ago sent me in a mission to hurt poor Hinata-chan! Then I'll destroy the Village Hidden in the Clouds! The Village hidden in the Rocks will be next!" he screamed wildly. Naruto didn't answer, so Shidomaru continued on his monologue "That way, no one is ever gonna try to hurt my Hinata-chan again because of those damned Byakugan eyes! My little sweet Hinata-chan will never have to fear the menace of her enemies ever again! _That's my revenge!_ My revenge for what they've done to my beloved Hinata-chan!"

"_Stop saying Hinata's name! You don't have the right to utter her name!_" Naruto screamed in a rage…

"That'd be _you!_" Shidomaru screamed back, equally enraged…

"No, it's _you!_ You played with her feelings! You made her believe you loved her so she would set you free when you were captured! Now she was labeled a traitor and they're going to _execute her!_" Naruto answered…

Having heard such horrible news, Shidomaru's eyes widened, he then immediately started running full-speed towards the Village Hidden in the Leaves without saying a word…

"_Hey! Come back here!_" Naruto screamed and started to pursue Shidomaru…

Some time later, Shidomaru was already jumping on the tree branches, all the while holding a piece of ice to his cheek to reduce the inflammation from Naruto's punch. "Why did it all have to come to this? All I did was falling in love with Hinata-chan… Now she's going to be killed… and it's my fault!" the disturbed Shidomaru thought to himself while in his hurry…

"_Heeeeey!_" Shidomaru suddenly heard Naruto's voice behind him. He looked behind and found that Naruto was, in fact, pursuing after him…

"Suiton: _Yukidama Bunshin!_" Shidomaru shouted while performing a hand sign, and created numerous snow clones of himself, the explosive type to be more precise. All of the explosive snow clones charged at Naruto in a kamikaze fashion, but despite the fact that Naruto was hit by each and every ice explosion and the attack damaged him seriously, this wasn't able to slow him down at all and in fact he seemed to be speeding up…

"He's a _monster_! Is it this monstrous strength why Hinata-chan loves this blonde bastard so much?" the horrified Shidomaru thought to himself…

Eventually he reached the huge main gates of the Village Hidden in the Leaves with Naruto following him closely, quickly catching up to him. Shidomaru was staring at the closed gates…

"Don't run away from our fight, you coward! I was just barely warmin' up! Believe it! Now I'm gonna go wild and kick your ass!" Naruto shouted, but Shidomaru didn't take his eyes out of the closed Konoha gate. "Hey! Are you listening? Say something!" Naruto continued yelling…

"The gates are closed…" Shidomaru said, still staring at said gates. The surprised Naruto hadn't realized it until just now, and looked at the closed gates…

"Did they close the gates this early? That's odd… Believe it…" said Naruto, scratching his head and showing a confused look…

"Were they… expecting me?" Shidomaru thought to himself with a serious look in his eyes. After some seconds, he started to perform hand signs…

"Wait! What are you doing?" Naruto exclaimed…

"I'm going to blow down this gate, invade your village and _rescue Hinata-chan_. Any objections?" Shidomaru answered…

"You…" the amazed Naruto answered, he then smiled with contempt and calmly walked up to Shidomaru…

"So you wanna rescue Hinata, huh? That's good… But don't blow down the village's gates! Believe it!" said Naruto while laying a hand on Shidomaru's shoulder with overconfidence as if they were already friends…

"Get that dirty hand off me _now_…" Shidomaru answered angrily…

"Easy! Aren't we friends already, Popsicles?" said Naruto with a smile while patting Shidomaru's back…

"My name is _Shidomaru_! And I wouldn't be friends with the fucktard who hurt Hinata-chan's heart even if they were to pay me for it!" Shidomaru answered furiously while turning around violently towards Naruto, slapping Naruto's hand off his back in the process…

"Are you a friend of Hinata's?" Naruto asked, staring seriously at Shidomaru's eyes…

"Not just a friend… I'm _in love_ with her!" Shidomaru answered, staring at Naruto's eyes equally seriously…

"Well… My friend's friend is also my friend" Naruto stated with a smile, still serious. However, he suddenly closed his eyes and laughed, rubbing the back of his head. "Did you understand that? I know it's a complicated tongue-twister. Believe it"

"I understood it better than you" Shidomaru answered with a comical look of disappointment…

"Leave it to me! I'll open the gates for you!" Naruto exclaimed while walking towards the closed gates…

"I don't need your help" Shidomaru answered. "In fact, _I don't want_ your help!"

But Naruto just ignored Shidomaru and started to shout towards the gates. "_Heeeeeey! Can anyone hear meeee! Open the gates! It's me, Naruto Uzumaki, the next Hokage! Believe it!_"

"If _you_'re one of the Five Kages, then I must be a god!" Shidomaru exclaimed sarcastically…

"_Hey! What are you waiting for? Open the gates!_" Naruto continued shouting without paying any attention to what Shidomaru was saying. In response to his calls, two ninjas jumped from the other side of the gates and landed perfectly on the ground in front of both Naruto and Shidomaru…

"Hi! Izumo and Kotetsu!" Naruto greeted both of them. "I brought that shinobi back to the village! It won't be necessary to execute Hinata, so open the gate"

"We're not letting any traitors get past this gate…" Izumo stated…

"…Be prepared, both of you" Kotetsu added…

"That's great! Now, will you open the gate for us?" Naruto answered with a naive smile, not realizing Izumo and Kotetsu were preparing to fight…

"I'd better not tell him… I wanna see how his own comrades kill him, then I'll laugh on his face" Shidomaru thought to himself…

And so, the horrified Naruto soon found himself on the receiving end of an attack from Izumo and Kotetsu, unexpected enough for him to not be able to dodge their blades. The wounded Naruto jumped back…

"_What the fuck are you doing?_" a horrified Naruto yelled at them…

"It's sad, Naruto-kun… But you've joined the enemy, so we're gonna have to capture you as well" Kotetsu answered while taking out a scroll from his vest's pocket, and then he performed a hand sign to send chakra to his soles…

"_What?_" said Naruto, unable to believe what was happening…

"Nothing personal, Naruto-kun" said Izumo, and then he performed a hand sign. "Suiton: _Mizuame Nabara!_"

Izumo then spewed some strange liquid which covered the entire ground below Naruto and Shidomaru's feet as Shidomaru watched calmly…

"Yuck… So, you hinder your enemy's movement by spilling your phlegm into the ground? Disgusting… and you've got a lot of phlegm…" Shidomaru said calmly while noticing his feet were glued by the sticky substance…

Kotetsu then opened his scroll and, in a puff of smoke, summoned his huge strange hammer-thing…

"I'll start with you, rogue Hidden Mist shinobi! _You can't escape!_" Kotetsu shouted as he charged towards a confident Shidomaru who was already performing hand signs. "Too late!" Kotetsu shouted as he made a high jump and prepared to hammer Shidomaru's head from above…

"What the f…?" said a surprised Izumo when he noticed that his liquid below Shidomaru's feet was quickly freezing all over…

"Yowch, it's cold!" Naruto screamed when the freezing reached him, forcing him to get up to escape being frozen. With the liquid turned into ice, Shidomaru just slipped back away from Kotetsu's attack, which just hit the ground and cracked it…

"Turning the battlefield to my favor is easy for me" Shidomaru stated while not wasting time and performing more hand signs. "_Out of my way! _…_Suiton: Koori no Uzu!_" he suddenly shouted, unleashing his giant ice vortex, dispatching both Izumo and Kotetsu on a single strike, also freezing the gates and nearby structures. The clouds of vapor that Izumo and Kotetsu were breathing as they lay on the ground, suffering from the cold, were signs that they were still alive, though incapacitated to keep on fighting…

"Tsk… Imbeciles! Just _who_ told you I had joined forces with this blonde retard?" Shidomaru said in an annoyed tone. In response, Naruto slowly got up, walked up to Shidomaru and bonked him over the head in a comical fashion…

"I'm starting to get tired of your insults… Believe it…" Naruto calmly stated, though a vein on his fist was twitching…

"Why, you _fuckin'_...!" a comically furious Shidomaru shouted while turning on Naruto with steam coming from his head…

"Is _that_ the way you treat your friend?" an equally comically furious Naruto with the same steam coming from his head shouted to Shidomaru, both pressing their foreheads against each other and making a sort of comical electricity between their looks…

"I _never_ said I wanted to be your friend!" Shidomaru answered…

"But you're friends with Hinata, so you're my friend! What do you think Hinata would say if she knew you mistreat your friend like that?" said Naruto…

"_Why_ should Hinata-chan worry about the guy who _left her for another woman!_" said Shidomaru…

"That crap _again_? I've got no freakin' idea of what you're talking about! Believe it!" Naruto answered…

But soon Shidomaru felt something was not right and suddenly turned towards the gates again, letting Naruto fall to the frozen ground from the force he himself was putting against Shidomaru's forehead…

"Hurts… and it's cold" Naruto complained as he got up. "Hey! What's the matter with you? You…!" but Naruto shut up suddenly when he noticed that Shidomaru was struck with terror…

"T… This can't be…" the terrified Shidomaru muttered. "That's… _Kakashi of the Sharingan!_"

It was in fact none other than Kakashi himself who was now standing in front of them, barring their way…

"Oh… That's just Kakashi-sensei" Naruto said calmly, he then started to leisurely walk towards Kakashi…

"_Baka! _It's _Kakashi of the Sharingan!_ We have no chance of defeating him! We have to fall back and come up with another strategy!" the terrified Shidomaru screamed, but Naruto of course wouldn't listen. He soon was standing right in front of his former teacher…

"Hi, Kakashi-sensei! What's up?" Naruto greeted confidently. "You know what? Izumo and Kotetsu were acting really weird just now! I think they've gone nuts! Beli…!"

But Kakashi just performed three quick hand signs and whipped up a Chidori in response, with which he hurt Naruto even further…

"No mercy for traitors…" Kakashi stated coldly, horrifying Naruto as well…

"Hey! Popsicles! Could you give me a hand?" the bleeding Naruto shouted while looking back, but Shidomaru was no longer there, which shocked Naruto…

"It seems your friend was wiser than you… It's a pity, Naruto. You joined forces with the enemy just to be betrayed like this…" said Kakashi…

"_But you guys are going to kill Hinata!_ I think _you_'re the traitors here! _Believe it!_" Naruto screamed, trying to justify having joined forces with a rogue shinobi from the Village Hidden in the Mist…

"Hinata Hyuga betrayed us… Are you going to betray us too, Naruto?" Kakashi answered, leaving Naruto speechless. Afterwards, he proceeded to throw Naruto out of the village and the gates started to close…

"_Kakashi-senseeeeeei!_" Naruto screamed as he was getting up, but the gates fully closed between him and Kakashi. Wounded and all, Naruto still ran towards the closed gate. "_Dammit!_" he shouted…

After that, he looked sideways to find Shidomaru quietly analyzing the wall surrounding the village. Not caring about it, Naruto furiously walked up to Shidomaru, grabbed him by the shirt and slammed him against the wall he was analyzing…

"_Why_ did you abandon me? I thought we were _friends_!" Naruto screamed in a total rage…

"For the last time, _I'm not your friend!_ Get that fuckin' shit out of your thick blonde head already!" Shidomaru screamed back, equally enraged…

The furious Naruto then let go of Shidomaru "You're right… You're not my friend… Friends don't abandon each other" Naruto stated…

"The _only_ people dear to me are Hinata-chan and Kirara-chan!" Shidomaru answered…

"Is _that_ why you let them arrest Hinata and sentence her to execution?" Naruto shouted…

Without saying a word, Shidomaru punched Naruto in the face in response…

"You punch like _a girl_!" Naruto shouted and gave back a much stronger punch which slammed Shidomaru against the wall again. With Shidomaru against the wall, the wounded and frustrated Naruto kept on punching and taking his frustration out on the weak Shidomaru. "I'm gonna…" the enraged Naruto said while preparing to deliver the final blow…

"_Shannaro!_" Sakura screamed as she appeared out of the blue to punch Naruto in the face with such force that she sent him through various trees…

"He said I punch like a girl?" the terrified Shidomaru thought to himself. "If _that_'s how girls punch in this village, then I'd theorically be way stronger than I actually am… Is _this_ a girl, to begin with?"

"Sakura-chan! Not you too!" a comically crying Naruto complained…

"Shut up and listen, you baka!" Sakura answered. "I've got a plan…"

Sakura then took her time to fully heal both Naruto and Shidomaru. They both got up from the floor with no wounds or tiredness at all…

"Thank you, Sakura-chan! You're always so sweet! Wanna go out after this is all over?" a blushing Naruto asked in a flirting tone…

"Don't be stupid!" Sakura answered…

"Aw, c'mon! You know that the more you resist, the more you motivate me to keep on fighting! Believe it!" Naruto continued flirting, but Sakura punched him again in response, sending him flying…

"We don't have time for this, you _pervert_!" the blushing Sakura shouted. Shidomaru's look then saddened…

"I see…" Shidomaru muttered…

"Pardon me?" said a confused Sakura who turned around to pay attention to him…

"So, you're that 'another woman'…" said Shidomaru, leaving Sakura clueless to what could he be referring to. Meanwhile, Naruto had already got up and came back to the place, still holding his aching cheek…

"When I used to meet and talk with Hinata-chan at the clearing… She told me about a person very special to her, someone she loved dearly… Someone I think I know" the sad Shidomaru explained while looking sideways towards Naruto, he then turned his look back to Sakura again. "Hinata-chan told me that, because she wasn't strong enough, that special person chose another woman instead of her… Sakura, isn't it? ...That other woman… is it you?"

"Shidomaru-san…" said a saddened Sakura. Shidomaru then started to cry…

"She was crying! …Ever since the moment I first laid my eyes on her, she was always sad! Even when she tried to smile and laugh, I could see that she was crying inside of her sweet, tender, wounded heart!" the crying Shidomaru screamed. He then glared furiously at Naruto, with his eyes still soaked in tears. "Because she couldn't be strong enough… The person she loved the most in the whole world abandoned her in favor of a stronger woman! Is that fair to you? _She loved you, Naruto Uzumaki!_" Shidomaru cried in grief…

Shidomaru's sudden revelation left Naruto in shock. "Hinata? ...She… She _loved_ me?" the puzzled Naruto thought to himself. Then he started having flashbacks of the time when he had been defeated by Pain, and Hinata stepped up to save him, facing Pain despite having absolutely no chance against him. No matter how much Pain hurt Hinata, she would get back up again to protect Naruto…

"That day… Now it makes sense!" he kept on thinking to himself as he remembered how Pain had stabbed Hinata. "Hinata… she intended to save me because she loved me… but… I've always loved Sakura-chan! …Then… why Hinata always blushed when she was near me… why Hinata always looked so sad… why Hinata almost died that day… Was it all… my fault? …Is my friend Hinata sad because of… me?"

What happened next greatly surprised both Shidomaru and Sakura. Naruto had suddenly kneeled down and bowed to Shidomaru, asking for forgiveness…

"I'm sorry…" Naruto said to Shidomaru. "I didn't mean to hurt Hinata's feelings… Believe it… Please, forgive me!"

Shidomaru was visibly moved. However, he turned his own face soaked in tears away from the apologizing Naruto. "Idiot… Don't apologize to me… Get up now…"

Naruto then got up and put on an optimistic face again. "I promise…" Naruto had said it in such a serious tone that it immediately drew the attention of both Shidomaru and Sakura…

"I promise I'll reunite you and Hinata! Believe it!" Naruto said with a smile and a thumbs-up, leaving the crying Shidomaru amazed…

"You should believe him" said Sakura with a smile. "When Naruto promises something, he _always_ keeps his word! Right?" Then Sakura turned to Naruto with a smile. Naruto smiled back, although with sadness in his eyes, knowing that he never fulfilled the promise he had made to Sakura of saving Sasuke…

"Well… Enough talk!" said Shidomaru as he wiped his own tears with a handkerchief. "Tell us your plan, woman"

So, the three waited for night to fall. Meanwhile, as she lay on her prison cell, the sad Hinata was remembering the past…

"Seven years ago…" she thought to herself. Her mind then traveled back to the day after that Hyuga warehouse burnt down with a beaten-up Shidomaru inside. Just like in Shidomaru's flashback, he was half-buried below the remains of the wooden house when a little shadow approached him. Now we finally see that shadow was actually Hinata herself, when she was about 9 or 10 years old…

"The boy from that time… Shidomaru-kun, it was you!" she thought to herself. Then she had a flashback where she doubted whether to get close to the half-buried boy or not. She soon noticed he was still breathing and, after a gasp of surprise, she decided to save him. For several days she ran back and forth bringing food to the boy and basically taking care of him whenever no one was watching her. By the time the young Shidomaru had regained his strength and was able to get out from below the remains of the house, the little Hinata just watched from afar, hiding behind a tree, satisfied from her good deed but sad that she had to part with her new friend who, not noticing Hinata's presence, left the forest…

"I'm glad that you were ok… Was it destiny that you would come back someday and fall in love with me? …They are going to execute me at dawn… I haven't got much time left…" Hinata thought to herself before starting to cry. "I'm glad that I could meet you, Shidomaru-kun… and… thank you. Thank you for making me feel… loved"

That same night, Sakura showed Naruto and Shidomaru a secret entrance…

"Here it is… Now listen, the execution is a Hyuga-only event, so it won't be held in the usual place. Hinata is going to be executed at the Hyuga mansion. We have until dawn to rescue her" Sakura explained…

"Why are you guys helping me?" Shidomaru asked…

"Isn't it obvious? We're friends!" Naruto answered…

"Besides, everyone in the village has been acting so strange… even Tsunade-sama and Kakashi-sensei!" Sakura added. "Somehow, it has something to do with you… so I'm going to use you in order to get to the bottom of this!"

Shidomaru nodded. "Understood… I'm ready"

"Well, then… Let's go!" Naruto exclaimed, taking the lead automatically like he always does. Shidomaru, Naruto and Sakura soon got inside the Village Hidden in the Leaves, but little did they know that they were already being observed by Kakashi, Yamato and Guy, standing in a roof…

"Should I stop them now, Kakashi-senpai?" Yamato said to Kakashi, already performing the 'hebi' hand sign…

"Nah… Let them dream some more…" Kakashi answered confidently while reading his book despite the fact that everything was dark…

"Youth is such a difficult period! We do all sorts of crazy things!" Guy exclaimed while posing…

"Well… anyway, I guess _he_ can handle them easily" said Yamato…

"I wouldn't be so sure of that…" Kakashi answered. "Not only we're going against Naruto and Sakura this time, but also…" then he looked over his book towards Shidomaru, remembering how he defeated Izumo and Kotetsu easily…

As the party of three walked along the dark streets, the sound of something crawling in the dark corners made Shidomaru and Sakura suddenly stop and become alert, but Naruto kept on walking…

"What's going on? I'll leave you behind! Believe it! Don't you wanna save Hinata?" Naruto said to them both…

But Sakura hissed so as to make Naruto shut up, so she could listen to the sound of whatever was crawling around them…

"There's something around us…" said Shidomaru, carefully looking around…

Both Sakura and Shidomaru were on their toes, but Naruto remained as clueless as always and even laid his hands on the back of his head. Suddenly, three black ink snakes quickly wrapped around each one of them, though mostly only holding their arms to their bodies, leaving them standing but otherwise unable to perform any hand signs…

"What the fuck…?" Shidomaru exclaimed…

"Ink snakes? It must be…" said Sakura…

And indeed it was. Sai soon emerged from the shadows in front of them…

"Sai!" Naruto shouted…

"I am sorry, but I cannot let you go any further" said Sai…

"They discovered us already? That was quick!" said Shidomaru…

"What else did you expect? It's my Village Hidden in the Leaves! Believe it!" Naruto answered…

"I never said it'd be easy to infiltrate a shinobi village!" Sakura added…

Sai then turned a communication device on. "Sai here. The three targets have been successfully captured. Over"

But then Shidomaru chuckled with a wide evil grin, which looked even scarier with his swordsman-of-the-mist-style teeth. "These snakes… So, they're made out of ink, right?"

"That is correct" said Sai as he turned his attention to Shidomaru. "But they have the strength of a real snake, as I am now going to show you" The snake around Shidomaru then started to press him and made him scream…

"Shidomaru-san!" Sakura exclaimed.

"Sai! Let go of us! We're your friends! Believe it!" Naruto shouted…

"They may have the strength of a real snake, but they're still ink…" Shidomaru muttered. What Shidomaru did next shocked everyone around him. They saw him moving his lips on a rather suspicious way, as if accumulating saliva inside of his mouth, and their faces turned comical as they saw Shidomaru purposefully and literally drool over the snake that was binding him. Shidomaru's watery saliva started to melt the ink snake away…

"He's got acid saliva!" a comically horrified Naruto exclaimed…

"That's not it. It's just your normal everyday saliva…" said a nauseated Sakura with her eyebrow twitching. "Saliva is mostly composed of water. If you spill water over ink…"

"So _this_ is what one feels when wanting to say… yuck…" said Sai, also with his eyebrow twitching despite being using his typical fake smile…

The ink snake was no longer binding Shidomaru, lying in pieces on the floor like a cut rope. Now free, Shidomaru prepared to fight. "You should have used a permanent pen…" Shidomaru mocked Sai…


	10. Feelings

Shidomaru prepared to fight Sai. Meanwhile, Kakashi, Yamato and Guy observed from the rooftop they were standing on…

"Impressive… though his method was rather unorthodox" Kakashi stated calmly…

"I can't believe it…" said a surprised Yamato…

"I can't wait to see how this battle turns out!" an expectant Guy exclaimed…

"A permanent pen?" Sai answered with his fake smile to Shidomaru as he took out his inky brush and paper for the battle. "Thank you. I shall think about it"

Shidomaru stayed silent and expectant to Sai's first move…

"Watch out, Popsicles! Sai can make his drawings come to life! Believe it!" Naruto shouted…

"I didn't ask you for advice! And my name is _Shidomaru_, dammit!" Shidomaru answered in comical anger as he turned his attention to Naruto briefly…

"But both of us want to rescue Hinata! We're friends! Believe it!" Naruto shouted. Shidomaru then turned his gaze back to Sai, seemingly ignoring Naruto…

"I'm sorry… Thank you, Naruto Uzumaki" said Shidomaru, which made Naruto smile…

"Just 'Naruto' to my friends! Believe it!" Naruto answered…

Sai then drew a number of lions into his sheet of paper. "Ninpo! Chojuu Giga!" he said as he performed a hand sign, and then the drawn lions jumped out of the sheet of paper, becoming living drawings…

"_C'mon!_" Shidomaru shouted, prompting all of the lions to attack him, which they did…

"_Watch out!_" Sakura screamed…

"Suiton: _Suirou no Jutsu!_" Shidomaru shouted. Everyone was astonished. Shidomaru was encased inside his own Water Prison Jutsu, so the ink lions that tried to attack him all melted in contact with the water sphere and were unable to reach him…

"He cast his own Suirou no Jutsu on _himself?_" The astonished Yamato exclaimed…

"No way! He wouldn't be able to breathe in there!" Guy exclaimed…

"A creative use of Suirou no Jutsu, indeed" said Kakashi as he suddenly closed his book. "Most Hidden Mist ninjas specialize in Water Style jutsu… but they're also taught techniques to survive underwater for long periods of time"

Indeed, Shidomaru wasn't holding his breath under his own Water Prison, but he was rather exhaling bubbles very slowly. After Sai's attack failed, Shidomaru freed himself…

"Your ink creatures can't affect me!" said Shidomaru…

In response, Sai very quickly appeared behind Shidomaru with his blade, positioning it dangerously near Shidomaru's throat, threatening to kill him. "Then I guess I shall resort to my other abilities" Sai calmly stated, but Shidomaru just closed his eyes and smiled with an "Hmph". Suddenly a clone of Shidomaru appeared behind a surprised Sai and slashed at his back…

"_Sai!_" Naruto and Sakura screamed in unison…

"What? …How is it I could not detect that clone?" Sai wondered as his grasp weakened and Shidomaru got free, letting Sai collapse on the floor. The ink snakes binding Naruto and Sakura melted on their own after this, so Sakura immediately went to check up on Sai while the enraged Naruto grabbed Shidomaru by the shirt…

"You didn't need to kill him!" Naruto shouted…

"How do you expect to win a battle between ninjas, then?" Shidomaru answered with seriousness…

"That's a thing of the past!" said Naruto as he released Shidomaru…

"But… Sai is an Anbu! How could he not detect your Yukibunshin coming?" Sakura asked as she started to use her medical jutsu to heal Sai and save his life…

"Yukibunshin are basically like living snowmen. They've got no smell and they don't radiate heat like human bodies. It may seem unpractical for a ninja since it's easy to tell the original from the clones… But if used correctly they're undetectable by scent or feel" Shidomaru explained, he then noticed Sakura was healing Sai. "Don't heal him! He'll attack us again!" Shidomaru protested…

"He's our friend! We can't let him die here!" Sakura answered…

"Don't you Mist ninjas know what the word 'friendship' means?" said Naruto…

"Mist ninjas do… But people with no actual friends don't" Shidomaru answered, making Naruto, Sakura and even Sai sad…

"How's that possible? Didn't you have a single friend before you met Hinata?" a surprised Sakura wondered while still healing Sai's back. Naruto naturally was moved like he always is when he meets another lonely soul like he used to be…

"I can't tell for certain why I was hated so much…" Shidomaru explained as he turned his gaze sideways into empty space. "…I remember being naturally weak from birth and unable to be as active as most kids… I remember having developed strange habits that made me seem different from the other kids in the classroom… I remember watching too much anime or playing too much videogames, sometimes trying to write my very own manga… I really don't know which of all of these made people label me as a weirdo… My mother used to say they were jealous of my intelligence and high marks at the Ninja Academy, but I never believed her"

"We'll surely rescue Hinata!" Naruto assured seriously, catching everyone's attention again. He then laid a hand on Shidomaru's shoulder in a supportive attitude. "Don't worry! After this is all over, you'll have a lot of friends! Believe it!" Naruto said to an amazed Shidomaru…

"These Hidden Leaf people…" Shidomaru thought to himself in amazement. "Why are they so attached to each other? Why is it they seem to want to make friends with everyone? Isn't that something impossible?"

After Sakura finished healing Sai, but not letting him go yet, Sai lifted his look towards Shidomaru…

"It is an entire shinobi village you are up against… You, Hidden Mist shinobi… Are you going to fight an entire village just for the sake of one person?" Sai questioned…

"I love Hinata-chan… I really don't care if I have to declare war to the whole Land of Fire, but I love Hinata-chan! I won't let her die" Shidomaru answered, making Sai think…

"Don't speak in singular! You're not alone anymore! Believe it!" Naruto said…

Sakura nodded. "That's right! Naruto and I are going to help you, Shidomaru-san" she said, she then let Sai get up…

"Then I guess it is futile trying to stop you…You will have to see for yourself what is stronger, if our shinobi army or your feelings for Hinata-san… Good luck" Sai said before performing a hand sign and teleporting in a puff of smoke. Shidomaru, Sakura and Naruto didn't waste any time and continued on. Sai appeared in the rooftop where Kakashi, Yamato and Guy were observing…

"I have accomplished my mission" Sai stated…

"Good job, Sai" Yamato answered…

"So, now that Sai's ink snakes have planted Yamato's seeds on their clothes, our troops should be aware of their position at every moment. They can't sneak or hide anymore" said Kakashi…

"But it's Naruto-kun and Sakura-san we're facing here, right? Won't they actually prefer to do a brave frontal assault of youth?" said Guy…

"They're faced against the whole village, including ourselves. We have lots of strong shinobis too. They are going to get tired eventually and we'll capture them when that happens" said Yamato…

"Well… It's true that Naruto and Sakura are a pair of hasty kids, but that Shidomaru… he doesn't seem it, but he's capable of pinpointing an enemy's weakness pretty quickly, as he showed us with Sai" said Kakashi…

"It's a shame we don't have him in our lines…" Guy commented with interest, touching his chin with his fingers…

"Anyway, not being able to hide or otherwise evade your enemies is still a big disadvantage, even for Naruto and Sakura. We'd better return to our positions and wait to see if we get the chance to fight them ourselves" said Kakashi before all four of them performed a hand sign and disappeared in puffs of smoke. While Shidomaru, Naruto and Sakura were running through the dark night streets, they were greeted by a first wave of ninja soldiers…

"It's ok as long as I don't kill them, right?" Shidomaru asked…

"Is it too difficult for you?" Naruto replied…

"I won't be made responsible if they die just from the cold!" said Shidomaru as he performed hand signs. "Suiton: _Tsumetai Arashi!_" he then shouted, releasing a fierce blizzard. While not lethal in itself, being just a strong gust of chilling cold wind with massive quantities of snow, it nevertheless hurt a significant part of the wave of soldiers enough to prevent them from being a threat any longer…

"_Tajuu Kagebunshin no Jutsu!_" Naruto shouted as he multiplied and each clone bashed an individual enemy, dispatching another big portion of the wave without killing the enemies…

"_Shannaro!_" Sakura screamed as she punched the ground, her monstrous strength generating such an earthquake that the soldiers all lost balance and fell over as the street shattered below them. Watching from afar at the mountain of the Hokage faces, many of our known Naruto co-protagonists watched the battle unfold, specifically Ten Ten, Lee, Shino, Ino, Choji and Shikamaru, this last one standing in the middle in a lead position…

"Not bad, Billboard Brow" Ino commented…

"They've defeated the first wave quite easily!" Choji said with a bit of a worry to Shikamaru…

"I can't wait to fight Naruto-kun head-to-head! That Hidden Mist shinobi looks interesting too!" Lee commented enthusiastically…

"Naruto and Sakura don't surprise me, but that ice shinobi…" Shikamaru thought to himself. "It's no wonder he defeated Kiba and almost got Neji as well… What a drag… I think he's gonna be a pain in the ass to deal with"

"Please let me go first, Shikamaru!" Ten Ten exclaimed…

"Not fair, Ten Ten! I wanna be the first to fight!" Lee protested…

"Don't be childish, Lee! Besides, I almost never get to show my full potential! I can be as strong as you boys, you know!" Ten Ten replied…

"What a drag…" Shikamaru sighed. "Don't let your emotions get the best of you. Just decide it by rock-scissors-paper, ok?"

But while Lee and Ten Ten were bickering, the ever-silent Shino who had never said a word up to now suddenly decided to jump forward and into action. Lee and Ten Ten were both comically disappointed…

"Well, that does it. Shino is going to take care of them for now" said Shikamaru…

Meanwhile, Naruto's army of Kagebunshin cleared the way through another wave of ninja soldiers for Sakura and Shidomaru to pass…

"I'll hold them off! You guys get to the Hyuga house before the sun rises!" one of the various Narutos shouted at Sakura and Shidomaru, so they both continued running…

"That's so _not_ typical of him…" said Sakura, catching Shidomaru's attention. "Usually he's the one who proceeds forward while we provide support from behind. Naruto loves to be on the main role" Sakura explained. "I think he wants _you_ to be the one who rescues your beloved Hinata" she added as she smiled to Shidomaru…

Shidomaru couldn't help smiling as he again looked forward. "Then I'll make sure not to waste his efforts!"

But a Fire Style jutsu soon cut their way short, creating a wall of fire…

"I'll handle this! Water is strong against fire!" said Shidomaru while performing hand signs, but Anko suddenly jumped from behind the wall of fire…

"I won't allow you to go any further!" Anko said as she conjured many long snakes from her left sleeve…

"_Shit!_" Shidomaru screamed as he realized he had no time to evade the snakes, but luckily for him Sakura reacted quick and put herself in the middle of the attack, getting grabbed and bitten herself instead of Shidomaru. Meanwhile Anko landed on her feet…

"_What the fuck are you doing?_" the horrified Shidomaru asked to Sakura…

"I'm fine! I'm a medical ninja after all, I can handle this!" Sakura answered while enduring the pain. "Go save Hinata!"

Shidomaru proceeded towards the wall of fire. Anko tried to stop him, but Sakura pulled the snakes with her strength, hindering Anko. "I won't let you!" said Sakura. Shidomaru then cast a cold blizzard on the wall of fire and put out the fire before continuing…

"You've got some nerve, little girl…" said Anko…

"We're just fighting for our friend" Sakura answered. Shidomaru was now running alone, which Shikamaru and the others were able to detect due to the seeds Yamato ordered Sai to plant on Shidomaru, Naruto and Sakura…

"There! They've finally separated. Now we'll slowly and patiently solve our problems one by one" Shikamaru thought to himself. "Have fun, Shino"

As he wandered into an apparently solitary dark main street, Shidomaru soon got greeted by a swarm of beetles…

"Fuck! I hate bugs!" Shidomaru exclaimed as he retreated some steps, covering his mouth and nose. Shino soon appeared amidst the swarm…

"I finally get my chance… I'm going to kill you, filthy pest" Shino said grudgingly…

"Look who's talking!" Shidomaru angrily answered…

"Before you die by my bugs, I want you to know something…" said Shino…

"I'm listening…" a serious Shidomaru answered…

"I've been keeping this secret to myself for years. I've never told anyone about it. Now you're the first and only person who's going to know…" said Shino. Shidomaru remained serious and silent as he was listening to Shino's every word…

"I love Hinata…" Shino suddenly confessed. "I've always had feelings for her… Nothing perverted, I never even asked for a kiss or anything like that. As long as she was happy, that's all I cared about… But now she's going to be executed… I suspected you would bring misfortune from the very moment I first laid my eyes on you… For ruining Hinata's life, I shall send you to a world of unimaginable pain… Get ready, Shidomaru"

"I'm glad there are other people besides me who seek Hinata-chan's happiness..." Shidomaru answered, he then performed a hand sign. "…It's just I can't die here. I haven't yet turned her into the happiest woman in the world"

Shidomaru then created a sub-zero atmosphere around himself. The bugs that were already on his body died of cold and fell to the floor…

"I figured the swarm could be a distraction… A bug's small size is its most dangerous weapon! I have to be alert while I eat so they don't get into the food I'm trying to eat! I don't underestimate such formidable enemies" Shidomaru explained…

"Flattery will get you nowhere" Shino answered and sent a swarm of bugs towards Shidomaru…

"It's useless!" Shidomaru shouted as he performed a different hand sign and sent a wave of cold forward, killing that swarm. "Bugs are weak against extreme cold, and that's exactly my weapon!"

However, another three swarms of bugs suddenly attacked from behind and both sides. Shidomaru sensed their presence and quickly turned around. "Suiton: _Tsumetai Arashi!_" he shouted again and with his blizzard he froze a big area, killing any bugs that were caught in the cold, but Shino had already positioned himself just behind Shidomaru…

"Never turn your back to the enemy…" Shino whispered to Shidomaru's ear while laying a hand on his shoulder, and millions of bugs quickly came out of his sleeve, enveloping Shidomaru whole in an instant. However, it turned out to be a Yukibunshin as Shino noticed it was melting…

"Suiton: _Koori Senbon!_" the real Shidomaru shouted at a distance behind Shino as he bombarded him with thousands of ice needles, but that Shino was just a clone made out of his insects. Shino appeared behind Shidomaru again…

"That's my Mushibunshin…" he again whispered to Shidomaru's ear, but Shidomaru melted again into water, seemingly another clone…

"Mizubunshin? ...It shouldn't surprise me from a Hidden Mist ninja, but…" Shino carefully thought to himself as he stared at the puddle of water before him, he then quickly jumped backwards when a large ice spike suddenly sprouted out of it. After Shino dodged, Shidomaru reformed himself from the puddle of water…

"Damn! You're tough!" the annoyed Shidomaru exclaimed…

"You're not bad yourself… for a vulgar scum" Shino retorted. He then commanded all of his bugs to attack from all directions, leaving no spot for Shidomaru to dodge…

"How repulsive!" Shidomaru shouted as he quickly performed yet another hand sign and unleashed an even colder wave than before. Even though he managed to kill most of the bugs, Shidomaru still couldn't prevent many from reaching his body. "Yuck! I can't shake them!"

"As you got distracted defending yourself from the big swarms, you were unable to notice the silently approaching threat… You said it yourself. The bugs' most dangerous weapon is their size" said Shino…

However, as Shidomaru struggled to shake the bugs off his body, Shino felt uneasy. "The chakra-eating bugs I've been placing on his body all along during this battle, and even before this battle started… They should have sucked his chakra dry by now… Why is it he can still perform such powerful ninjutsu? How much chakra does he have?" Shino thought to himself…

"Fuck! This is gonna require drastic measures!" Shidomaru complained, he then performed many hand signs. The temperature around him and Shino suddenly dropped and everything froze even more frozen than it already was. In fact, it dropped so much that the cold not only damaged Shino and his bugs, but Shidomaru also damaged himself…

"Even you wouldn't stand this much cold! Even the harshest winter in the Land of Water isn't this cold!" the surprised Shino exclaimed as the swarms of bugs all around died and both himself and Shidomaru suffered the terrible cold, both exhaling clouds of vapor as they breathed…

"Yeah… But I'm from a cold land, and you're from a hot one. While my ninjutsu isn't as effective in hot weather, the inhabitants of the Land of Fire are also less resistant to cold… Same goes backwards, of course. I hate receiving heat-based attacks!" Shidomaru explained as he trembled from the cold he himself was causing…

"Impressive…" Shino stated as he, just as Shidomaru, was beginning to freeze. "Why are you going this far? Do you really desire to destroy this village so much that you don't care about your life?" Shino then asked…

"_Idiot!_ I'm _not_ here to destroy your village!" Shidomaru answered angrily. "I'm here to save someone's life! The life of someone very dear to me! …And very dear to you as well!"

The temperature kept on dropping. If it continued like this, both Shino and Shidomaru would die of cold…

"Before I completely freeze, there's something I want to ask of you, Shidomaru…" said Shino…

"Hmph… I'm listening" Shidomaru answered with a smile…

"I'm swallowing my own pride by asking you this… but… Please… I beg you… _Save Hinata!_" Shino managed to say before collapsing. Finally safe, Shidomaru stopped his jutsu…

"I will" Shidomaru concisely answered before moving on…

Back at the mountain of Hokage faces, Shikamaru looked bothered…

"Shino wasn't able to stop him… We're up against a more formidable opponent than I first calculated" said Shikamaru…

"No way! Shino lost? For real?" Ino exclaimed in surprise…

"What are we going to do, Shikamaru?" asked Choji…

"I don't get it… By now, some of Shino's bugs should have arrived here with more information about the enemy" Shikamaru thought to himself. "Even with that enemy's cold-based powers, some of the bugs should be able to survive and fly up to here… It's my guess Shino let his feelings carry him away as well. Maybe he can't just forget about his teammate… I don't blame him, though"

Without saying a word, Ten Ten jumped forward and down into the battlefield…

"I'm going to engage the enemy, Shikamaru-kun!" Lee announced before jumping down as well…

"Just don't do anything precipitated… Ten Ten… Lee…" Shikamaru thought to himself…

Meanwhile, Sakura wasn't faring very well against Anko and got knocked into the ground…

"Be a good girl and give up!" said Anko, but Sakura just healed herself again. "C'mon! Stop messin' around! I don't wanna have to kill you…" Anko added, starting to lose her patience…

"Kill me if you will! Maybe you can execute me like you're going to do to Hinata!" Sakura retorted…

"Get over it already! You can't save everyone, you know!" said the annoyed Anko. "Death is a part of life, too"

"Yeah… As a medical ninja, I know that…" said Sakura as she got up. "But it's a friend's life we're talking about, and she's going to be unfairly killed for a crime she didn't commit!"

"Huh? Didn't _she_ release that ice boy from the prison?" Anko replied sarcastically…

"_Betraying the village! _Hinata didn't release Shidomaru-san to hurt us! She was just trying to save someone's life, just as we're doing now!" Sakura shouted…

"_Hah!_ So _that_'s why you're fighting and hurting the shinobis of your own village?" Anko retorted…

"I… I-I'm fighting for my friends! I'll die fighting for my friends!" Sakura exclaimed…

"Then _die!_" Anko exclaimed as she unleashed her snakes on Sakura…

"_Rasengan!_" Naruto soon burst into the scene and hit Anko by surprise with his Rasengan, knocking her out cold and saving Sakura's life. "Sorry, Anko-sensei… But you can't kill Sakura-chan as long as I'm here. Believe it"

"Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed…

"Sorry for the delay, Sakura-chan… Are you alright?" Naruto asked, for which he got punched by Sakura and driven through a wall…

"Of course I'm not alright! I almost got killed! Where the fuck were you?" Sakura asked in a comical fury…

"Sakura-chan! And I had bothered to come save you! Believe it!" the aching Naruto complained as he got back up. "Someone has to protect you in Sasuke's absence, you know"

Sakura then smiled at Naruto. "You're right… Sorry about that"

"Sorry? That's all? Won't you kiss my aching cheek?" the disappointed Naruto complained…

"C'mon! We gotta save Hinata!" said Sakura as she started to run…

"Not fair! Believe it!" Naruto complained, following Sakura…

Meanwhile, as Shidomaru ran through the main street, chilling the various waves of enemy shinobis with massive blizzards and hails, soon he found Rock Lee and Ten Ten barring his way…

"Is this the Hidden Mist ninja everyone is talking about?" Lee asked…

"Yes, it's him" Ten Ten answered…

"But… He looks so weak! What a disappointment!" Lee complained…

"Stop complaining! He defeated Kiba and now Shino! Even Neji-kun had some trouble with this guy!" said Ten Ten…

"Really? _He_ gave _Neji_ a difficult time? I want him to give me a difficult time too!" Lee exclaimed right before charging at Shidomaru…

"Suiton: _Koori Kabe no…!_" Shidomaru tried to shout as he performed hand signs, but…

"Too slow!" Lee exclaimed from behind Shidomaru before kicking him into the ground. "I don't mean to be offensive, but you couldn't have given _Neji_ a hard time!"

"That Bruce-Lee-wannabe is a speed devil!" a horrified Shidomaru thought to himself as he tried to get up. "I don't think I can defeat him…"

"How dare you make my Neji-kun's life miserable? His cousin is gonna be executed because of _you_!" said Ten Ten. "I'm gonna beat you up on behalf of my dear Neji-kun!"

"Heh… So, you're that Hyuga bastard's girlfriend, huh?" said Shidomaru as he finally got back up…

"Not yet, but hopefully someday… He's a combat genius and can block my entire projectile barrage! You don't stand a chance against Neji-kun!" Ten Ten stated…

"So, if I block your entire barrage of projectiles, you'll fall in love with me?" Shidomaru replied sarcastically…

"Holy shit! _No!_" Ten Ten shouted, comically frustrated. "Ninjas are warriors. As such, we must get married to the strongest people possible, so that our descendants can become even stronger warriors… Neji is, of course much more than just a _really_ pretty face. He's the strongest boy of my generation. He was number 1 rookie of his year after the Ninja Academy, and he's the only one of us to have become jounin rank… In short, you won't be able to defeat Neji even in your craziest dreams!"

"I'll defeat him someday if I train hard enough!" Lee exclaimed…

"_No!_ You won't!" Ten Ten answered, comically angry…

"Why are you so mean to me, Ten Ten?" Lee complained, comically frustrated. "I'm only saying that if I work hard enough, I'll be very strong and Sakura-san is gonna fall in love with me"

"What a hideous ideology…" a seriously angered Shidomaru said between clenched teeth, clenching his fist as well…

"Huh? What are you talking about?" a confused Ten Ten asked…

"The ninja lifestyle! Marry the strongest one just to produce stronger warriors? _Where_'s love in that crap? What are you, a weapons factory? And what about Hinata-chan? Only 'cause she's weak does she deserve to remain alone and unloved?" Shidomaru furiously shouted…

"_Huh?_ Are you stupid?" said a surprised Ten Ten…

"Hmm… In fact, he's just made an interesting question, Ten Ten…" Lee pondered with his fingers on his chin…

"Listen! Love may or not eventually come later, that's not important! We ninjas are born to fight and become stronger each day! Of course we don't care about frivolous things such as if a girl is cute or if a boy is sweet!" Ten Ten exclaimed and then calmed down. "Neji's cousin Hinata used to be like that as well. That's why she loved Naruto. He may not have been strong back then, but his efforts would make him great warrior material someday and she knew it… But somewhere along the way Hinata seems to have lost her path…"

Shidomaru widened his furious eyes as he listened to Ten Ten's words about Hinata…

"Recently, she has forgotten that ninjas must be strong, regardless of gender… Hinata let herself get wooed by some flatterer who told her that he loved her. _Someone_ right in front of me seems to have told her that she doesn't need to be strong in order to be loved, and so she forgot her duties as a ninja for a pathetic little teenage romance. She's now going to be executed thanks to the things _you_ got into her head!" Ten Ten coldly said to Shidomaru…

"Hinata-chan…" an enraged Shidomaru muttered. "_Hinata-chan isn't a tool or weapon!_" he then suddenly screamed in rage. "_Hinata-chan is the most wonderful person in this and all worlds! I love her because of her heart, not for her strength or abilities and even less for those fuckin' Byakugan eyes!_"

Ten Ten took out the large scroll she carried on her back in response. "I'll show you how strong a kunoichi must be in order to be chosen by a male ninja as the mother of future warriors" She then threw it into the sky, holding its tip so the scroll would widely open high over Shidomaru's head. Already aware that an attack was coming, Shidomaru started performing hand signs in response, while Lee quickly jumped back a considerable distance so he wouldn't be caught in the crossfire…

"_Souryuu Tensakai!_" Ten Ten shouted. A chain of puffs of smoke all along the large scroll unleashed uncountable ninja tools in a bombardment so fierce it caused a thunderous boom and a large cloud of dust. It even shook the ground slightly (not as much as a punch from Sakura, though) and even Lee had to step back and defend with his arms before the force of Ten Ten's attack…

"That was a little bit too much, Ten Ten!" Lee exclaimed…

"We shouldn't underestimate him… Besides, he was getting on my nerves" Ten Ten answered. However, after the cloud of dust dissipated, both Lee and Ten Ten were shocked to see Shidomaru intact, encased in a thick iceberg which completely protected him from the impact. Shidomaru then made an evil grin inside the ice as he glared at Ten Ten's horrified eyes…

"I've just blocked _all_ of your projectiles… But I'm sorry, I can't marry you… Because I've already got a _cute_, _beautiful_, _sweet_, _kind-hearted_, _weak_, _delicate_, _helpless_ and overall _feminine_ girlfriend named _Hinata-chan _and _I love her!_" Shidomaru told Ten Ten…

"T-This can't be! …It's not possible!" a terrified Ten Ten exclaimed. "My best jutsu…"

"_Eat this shit! _Both of you!" Shidomaru shouted. The iceberg he was in suddenly exploded tremendously into a vicious hailstorm, blowing away both Lee and Ten Ten in different directions. With both of his opponents knocked out and seemingly not going to wake up for quite some time, Shidomaru was starting to relax. However, as he walked the first steps to continue on his way…

"So… You _are_ strong, after all" said the voice that the horrified Shidomaru heard at a distance behind him. He then quickly turned around to see Lee getting up with relative ease even after receiving such tremendous attack, much to Shidomaru's horror…

"I once fought an opponent similar to you, only he used sand instead of ice" Lee stated as he started to do warming-up exercises. "This may be more interesting than I first thought…"

"That last attack I made… I put a lot of chakra into it to make sure it would defeat them both in one hit!" Shidomaru thought to himself, then he looked back to see a knocked-out and unconscious Ten Ten in the distance. "Looks like Chun-Li wasn't so much of a threat after all, but…" he then looked at Lee again. "Bruce seems relatively unharmed even after such brutal blow… and those warming-up exercises he's doing… Something tells me he's planning to screw me good…" After thinking this, Shidomaru became nervous and a drop of sweat slowly ran down his temple…

"Personally, I wanted to fight against Naruto-kun, but you've now caught my interest. Please let me find out which is stronger, if your icy defense or my burning ambition!" said Lee, then he finished the warm-up and shifted into his favorite battle stance. "I'm ready when you are!"…

"I don't have time for this!" Shidomaru exclaimed, he then tried to run away from Lee…

However, Lee caught up to him in an instant. "_Konoha Senpuu!_" he shouted as he kicked Shidomaru and knocked him into the ground again. As he lay on the floor, Shidomaru coughed up blood…

"Don't run away from our man-to-man fight! That's so cowardly!" an angered Lee shouted. "Please get up and fight me head-on like a man!"

"Easier said than done…" Shidomaru thought to himself, unable to speak due to the intense pain produced by Lee's kick. "He must be a taijutsu specialist, having trained his body much more than his chakra, as opposed to my style… But even for a shinobi with inclination to taijutsu, that endurance, speed and strength is monstrous! He could even match Naruto!"

Lee patiently waited as Shidomaru made an effort to get up. After about a minute, he finally did…

"All right!" Lee exclaimed in joy. "I was already afraid that you'd be a weakling who doesn't get up after the first hit! I'm so happy that you persevere!"

"Any other ninja would have killed me right there without a second thought… Why did he wait until I got up?" Shidomaru thought to himself…

Next thing Lee did was an acrobatic backwards somersault in order to give Shidomaru more space. After landing, he shifted into another battle stance. "I'm going to let you do the first move!" Lee said…

"He's making fun of me…" an angered Shidomaru thought to himself. "That playmobil-face is too fast and too strong, so my best bet is to play defensively"

Shidomaru then started to perform hand signs. Instead of attacking him now and interrupting him, Lee waited until Shidomaru performed the last hand sign…

"Now!" Shidomaru thought to himself and suddenly hurled an ice kunai towards Lee, which he dodged and then charged towards Shidomaru, who then resumed the hand sign. "Suiton: _Hokkyoku Yamaarashi!_" (Translates as "Arctic Hedgehog") Just as Lee reached him, Shidomaru encased himself into a spiky chunk of ice, but Lee's quick reflexes let him stop just in the nick of time and prevent himself from being impaled…

"Woohoo! Now _that_'s what I was talking about!" Lee exclaimed enthusiastically…

"_Eat this shit, you hyped-up asshole!_" Shidomaru screamed as he performed yet another hand sign. The spiky chunk of ice exploded and sent all of the sharp spikes flying in all directions, damaging Lee and blowing him away…

"I hope that's enough to calm that bastard down!" the tired Shidomaru exclaimed, but, much to his horror, Lee got back up again, seemingly not minding his injuries…

"My name is Rock Lee… What is your name?" Lee asked

"My name is Shidomaru" Shidomaru answered…

"I must congratulate you, Shidomaru-kun! The last one was an amazing move!" said Lee. "But your cold attacks do nothing but fuel my flaming passion for difficult battles! And now my determination is burning!" Then Lee's eyes lit on brightly burning fire, which is actually a comical representation of his feelings rather than actual fire…


	11. InoShikaCho

Meanwhile, elsewhere in the village a somewhat disturbed Sai (though it's not easy to tell due to his inexpressive face) was sitting against a pillar, making another drawing. Kakashi was standing just behind him, reading his book as he stood with his back against that very same pillar, but he soon looked with the corner of his only visible eye over Sai's shoulder…

"What are you drawing, Sai?" Kakashi asked…

The drawing depicted Shidomaru, Naruto and Sakura on one side, about to clash with the many other people Sai knows who are on the other side of the drawing. Behind the most numerous group is a crying, crucified Hinata…

"Kakashi-sensei… On one side, we have got all of the people of this village. Our comrades we know and love… On the other side, there is someone who would stand up alone against all of them despite all odds, if only for the sake of the one person dear to him… Are we on the right side, Kakashi-sensei?" Sai wondered…

Kakashi sighed. "Sometimes a shinobi has to make really difficult decisions… Sometimes we have to do things that go against any and all moral values… Shidomaru's intentions are perhaps noble, but if I have to choose between him and the people of my village, I'll stand by the side of my village" he then answered…

Sai then turned his head around to look at Kakashi. "But… Isn't the person he's trying to save one of our village as well?" he said…

Kakashi closed his book and gazed forward. "We don't know if he really intends to save her or what are his true motives…Most people, particularly young men, make a big fuss about how much they love someone, but when faced with a life-or-death situation, very few of them will still stand by their so-loved person. We'll soon discover what type of lover he is, if the type who runs away leaving his loved one behind… or the type who will fight to protect his loved one even if it means giving his life for her"

Back to the site of battle, Shidomaru's last attack had only made Lee more enthusiastic about their battle…

"No doubt about it! He's made of the same material than Naruto!" the terrified Shidomaru thought to himself. "Both are unstoppable monsters who get stronger the more they're wounded! I _hate_ that sort of people!"

As soon as Shidomaru saw Lee preparing to move, he got startled and desperately started to make quick hand signs…

"Ready or not, here I come!" Lee exclaimed before charging at Shidomaru…

"Suiton: _Koori Senbon!_" Shidomaru shouted as he tried to bombard Lee with ice needles, but Lee dodged them and delivered a devastating blow to Shidomaru's weak body, so strongly that he drove him all the way through a building. As Shidomaru lay among the debris, Lee walked up to him…

"I can't defeat him…" Shidomaru thought to himself. "He's too fast, too strong and his endurance is too high… He's strong in the area where I'm weak…"

"What? It's over already?" Lee complained. "C'mon! Don't do this to me! We were just starting having fun! Get up! Please!"

But Shidomaru couldn't get up even if he wanted to. Lee's attacks were too strong for his weak body…

"Oh, man!" Lee exclaimed in annoyance. "I guess I'll just capture you now" But just as Lee prepared to get a hold of Shidomaru…

"Lee onii-san! Please don't!" the voice of a crying Kirara running towards Lee and Shidomaru was heard…

"Kirara-san?" said the surprised Lee…

"Please, don't hurt Shidomaru-san anymore! He's a good person!" Kirara cried…

"K… Kirara-chan…" Shidomaru managed to mutter. Kirara then kneeled beside Shidomaru…

"Do you know him, Kirara-san?" Lee asked…

"Yes… He's Shidomaru-san… he's sweet and kind and loves Hinata-sama with his whole heart!" said the crying Kirara, smiling at Shidomaru…

"I-I'm sorry Kirara-san… All I was told was that a rogue ninja wanted to destroy our village" said Lee…

"_That's a lie!_" Kirara cried. "Shidomaru-san loves Hinata-sama! He kisses Hinata-sama and caresses her and he also tickles Hinata-sama's cute feet! Shidomaru-san would never do something that would harm Hinata-sama!"

"Kirara-chan… Please stop…" Shidomaru muttered…

"Shidomaru-san is here because he came to rescue Hinata-sama from the execution! I always knew Shidomaru-san would come to save her! _That's because he loves Hinata-sama!_" Kirara cried out loud towards the night sky…

Hearing Kirara's words of blind trust, Shidomaru started to cry. "Kirara-chan… Were you waiting for me to rescue Hinata-chan all this time?" the moved Shidomaru thought to himself. "Did you really trust me that much? ...But… I can't continue any further" Shidomaru then remembered his recent fights against Shino and Lee. "That bug maniac drained a good portion of my chakra, and now this crazy Bruce-Lee-wannabe beat me to a bloody pulp! ...I'm sorry, Kirara-chan" then Shidomaru slowly started to close his eyes…

"_Shidomaru-saaaaan!_ Wake up! If you die, who's going to stop Hinata-sama's execution?" Kirara cried. Then the image of Hinata being about to be executed came into Shidomaru's mind, screaming "_Shidomaru-kun!_" right before being slashed to death. Such thought made Shidomaru open his eyes…

"H… Hinata-chan…" He then tried to get up, but his body was too hurt and he just ended up coughing blood…

"Don't move yet, Shidomaru-san!" Kirara exclaimed. She then started to perform some hand signs. "Ninpou: _Hankon Keisei!_" (Translates as "cicatrize") Shidomaru's wounds then started to heal at an amazing pace…

"Awesome! What's that jutsu?" Lee exclaimed…

"We women of the Itoshiki clan utilize ninjutsu to help our friends in battle" Kirara explained…

"That's wonderful! Let's try fighting Shidomaru-san with you constantly healing him! Now _that_ sounds like a challenge!" Lee exclaimed with enthusiasm…

"Lee onii-san, _no!_" Kirara replied. "Shidomaru-san has to stop Hinata-sama's execution and rescue her! He didn't come here to destroy our village and much less did he come to entertain you!

"Sorry, little sister…" Lee answered in shame. Once fully healed, Shidomaru got up…

"Shidomaru-san!" Kirara exclaimed happily…

"Thank you, Kirara-chan… I owe you one" said Shidomaru. Kirara and Lee also got up…

"My apologies, Shidomaru-san!" said Lee as he respectfully bowed to Shidomaru. "I didn't know you had come to rescue Hinata-san!"

"You want me to save her too?" Shidomaru asked…

"Of course! She's my friend! ...Well actually, we almost don't talk to each other, but she's my teammate Neji's cousin" said Lee…

"That bastard…" Shidomaru thought to himself as his anger started to boil, remembering Neji's face…

"Neji is suffering too… Everyone on this village is! But since the execution has been decided by the head of the Hyuga clan and approved by the Hokage, no one can oppose to it… Maybe Hinata-san's only hope lies within someone to whom our rules don't apply… a rogue shinobi from a foreign village!" Lee stated, he then kneeled down and bowed as if begging. "So please, also save this village! Save the people of my village from themselves!"

Shidomaru's look saddened as he was moved again. "Understood… I'll do what you're asking of me" he said while closing his eyes, he then opened them again. "Just one question…"

"What is it?" said Lee as he raised his head…

"Are you two _really_ brother and sister?" the confused Shidomaru asked to Lee and Kirara…

"I adopted Lee onii-san as my big brother because he protected me!" Kirara stated happily…

"I should have known…" a comically disappointed Shidomaru mumbled…

"Lee! What on earth are you doing?" Guy's voice sounded…

"G… G-Guy-sensei…" the terrified Lee muttered. Guy was, in fact, standing some meters away in front of Shidomaru and Kirara. Lee stood up and turned around…

"Guy-sensei! Let me explain!" Lee exclaimed nervously…

"Is that your dad?" Shidomaru asked while pointing at Guy with his finger…

"Why were you begging to the enemy? Don't tell me that my student has been… _defeated_!" then Guy fell to his knees and started comically crying rivers of tears. "Poor Lee! Having been defeated into submission by a rogue shinobi!"

"Uh… No, Guy-sensei. That is…" Lee tried to explain…

"_Don't worry, Lee! I'll avenge you!_" Guy passionately screamed as he stood up with his eyes blazing just like his student's. He then charged towards Shidomaru, but his kick was blocked. "_What?_" the shocked guy exclaimed when he saw Lee blocking his attack…

"Shidomaru-kun, you shouldn't fight Guy-sensei! Guy-sensei is invincible! I'll distract him, Shidomaru-kun! You go to the Hyuga house and save Hinata-san!" said Lee…

"L-Let me help you, Lee onii-san!" Kirara exclaimed…

"No, little sister… You could get caught in the crossfire. Go with Shidomaru-kun!" said Lee…

"But…!" Kirara tried to reply…

"Don't make your big brother repeat himself, Kirara-san! Go save your idol Hinata-san with Shidomaru-kun!" Lee answered…

"Let's go, Kirara-chan. Hinata-chan is waiting for us" said Shidomaru. Kirara nodded and followed Shidomaru, running until both got lost into the distance. Lee and his sensei then separated into a proper distance and both shifted into fighting stances…

"I can't believe it, Lee… You too are working under that rogue shinobi… _Are you going to betray our village too, Lee?_" Guy shouted with passion…

"If Sakura-san or you Guy-sensei were about to be executed, I'd gladly fight against the whole village to save you! That's why I know how Shidomaru-kun and Kirara-san are feeling about the execution of Hinata-san!" Lee shouted with equal passion, even starting to comically cry rivers of tears…

"_Then fight me, Lee!_" Guy screamed with more passion, suddenly crying the same rivers of tears…

"_It'll be an honor, Guy-sensei!_" Lee screamed just as passionately as his sensei, and they both clashed full-force…

Meanwhile, at the mountain of Hokage Faces, only Ino, Shikamaru and Choji remained…

"The enemy's advancing… Even Lee and Ten Ten couldn't stop him…" said Shikamaru…

"Like… _for real?_ You gotta be kidding me!" said Ino. "If those two can't defeat him, then _who_ can?"

"Shikamaru, I think it's time for Ino-Shika-Cho to be back in action" said Choji. Shikamaru yawned and stretched his limbs in response…

"What a drag… But yeah, we're gonna have to take care of this ourselves" said Shikamaru. "Team Ino-Shika-Cho… Deploy!"

Then the three of them jumped forward into the battlefield at the same time. Shidomaru and Kirara were running through a street…

"We're not far from Hinata-sama's home!" Kirara exclaimed…

"But it's been some hours already! The sun is gonna rise soon!" Shidomaru answered…

However, four big reflectors suddenly lit over both of them from four directions, making each of them project four shadows…

"_Kage Mane no Jutsu!_" Shikamaru shouted as he promptly took advantage of the extra shadows to more easily catch his prey. Shidomaru and Kirara were at team Ino-Shika-Cho's mercy…

"Oh, sorry" Ino said insincerely. "Your little game ends here"

"How dare you invade our beloved Village Hidden in the Leaves?" Choji said angrily…

"You should be thankful that we were nice to you last time, Popsicles… Now we're not going so easy on you" Shikamaru said calmly…

"Who the fuck are these guys?" Shidomaru screamed…

Ino giggled. "Like… I'm Ino Yamanaka" she said, trying to give herself sex-appeal…

"I'm Shikamaru Nara…" said Shikamaru…

"…And I am Choji Akimichi" said Choji…

"And together we are… _Ino_…" said Ino…

"…_Shika_…" said Shikamaru…

"…_Cho!_" screamed Choji…

"Named your team after the Hanafuda combination, huh?" said Shidomaru…

"And we're the _winning_ combination!" said Ino, acting as if she believed everyone around her would fall in love with her instantly…

"Stop flirting with everyone, you Ino old hag!" Kirara shouted angrily. "Hinata-sama is far more beautiful than you because she doesn't focus solely on looks like you do!"

"_What_ did you call me, you little brat?" Ino screamed furiously while clenching her fist. "Choji! Kill that ugly brat first!" she then ordered…

"But, Ino… She's one of our village! Shouldn't we kill that rogue shinobi first?" Choji questioned…

"_No one_ is going to be killed!" Shikamaru ordered both of his teammates. "We're capturing them alive and the authorities will decide what to do with them"

"_Rasengan!_" a voice shouted and an explosion was heard as one of the four big reflectors was destroyed and one of the four shadows projected by Shidomaru and Kirara disappeared…

"What the fuck…?" said Shikamaru…

"_Shannaro!_" another voice screamed and another reflector was destroyed. Only two shadows remained…

"Hey! Is that how you treat your friends, Popsicles?" said Naruto. "Why didn't you invite us to the party? You're not trying to rescue Hinata alone! Believe it!"

"Naruto!" a surprised Choji exclaimed…

"Stop wasting time there! Your beloved Hinata is waiting for you!" said Sakura…

"Sakura!" exclaimed a surprised Ino…

"Tsk… Naruto must have saved Sakura from Anko sooner than I expected" Shikamaru thought to himself. "We'll have to resort to Plan B"

"Ino! Choji! Protect the remaining two reflectors at any cost!"

"Yes, sir!" Choji exclaimed…

"Understood…" said Ino.

Both Choji and Ino then took really big leaps towards Naruto and Sakura respectively, in order to confront them…

"This won't be like last time, Billboard Brow" said Ino as she waved her hair with her hand in a seductive manner…

"Most certainly not, Ino Pig. This time, I'll defeat you!" Sakura answered…

"Nothing personal, Naruto. I've got orders" said Choji…

"Yeah, yeah. Say what you want. I'm not afraid of you fatso! Believe it!" Naruto answered…

"Forget it! Now it is _very_ personal! _I'm gonna kill you!_" the enraged Choji screamed after being called fat by Naruto. "_Baika no Jutsu!_" he then screamed and his body increased in both volume and mass. "_Nikudan Sensha!_" he screamed after as he curled up into a ball and tried to crush Naruto with his body's sheer weight. Ino and Sakura had already started fighting as well…

"Damn… Sakura's right! I don't have time to be stuck in this shadow jutsu! The sun will start to rise at any minute now!" Shidomaru thought to himself. He then tried to struggle to break free from the shadow, but it was useless. Shidomaru then looked at Shikamaru, who was just crouching there, completely immobile. "That guy over there… He's terrifyingly calm despite the situation…" Shidomaru thought, he then looked at the battles of Naruto and Sakura against Choji and Ino respectively. "His allies don't look any stronger than Naruto and Sakura… In fact, I don't think they can win against Naruto and Sakura" then Shidomaru looked at Shikamaru again. "If his team is on the losing side, why is that ponytail guy so calm about it?"

"Are you analyzing the situation?" Shikamaru suddenly asked, interrupting Shidomaru's internal thoughts and surprising Shidomaru and Kirara. "I think I saw your eyes move over to our partners' battles and then back to me"

"So what if I am?" Shidomaru answered…

"You're right. Your allies are stronger than mine. I must congratulate you for having chosen such formidable troops to be on your side. But you want to know why am I so calm, don't you?" Shikamaru said…

"Do you have mind-reading abilities?" Shidomaru asked…

"Nope. That'd be Ino, but she's busy fighting Sakura, so she can't read your mind at this moment" Shikamaru answered. "My name is Shikamaru Nara. I really dislike fighting or otherwise having to do any labor in general. Many people call me lazy… But… it's because of my laziness that I'm always trying to find the easiest way to accomplish everything, and I've grown quite used to it"

"You're a strategist?" the surprised Shidomaru exclaimed…

"Hey! You're a smart cookie after all! That'll save me a lot of boring explanation, thank you" Shikamaru answered. "To make a long story short, I had already calculated _all_ of your possible moves even before your invasion to this village started, and prepared to react to any possible setbacks… I even thought about the narrow possibility that you could get past Shino, Ten Ten and even Lee… I've even got a backup plan if this one fails"

"It's only my guess, but… Are you trying to buy time?" Shidomaru asked…

"We have a winner!" Shikamaru exclaimed sarcastically. "Man, you're a joy to talk to! You understand quickly… To be honest, I don't wanna fight you, and I know our entire team has no chance of defeating you in direct combat. From the info I got on you, I'd say your ice attacks are approximately equal in power to the Fifth Kazekage's sand… But you have to work under the pressure of time, and we don't. Once the sun rises, which is gonna happen within an hour, everything's over"

"You damn bastard…" Shidomaru growled. "I can't waste time here! The woman I love is gonna be executed and I've gotta save her!" he then screamed…

"And what are you gonna do once you save your princess? Are you gonna ask her father for his elder daughter's hand in marriage?" Shikamaru answered with further sarcasm. "The least he'll do is kicking your ass out of his house!" Shikamaru's harsh statement of the crude reality left Shidomaru shocked…

"Indeed, what you're attempting to do is something beautiful, and I admire that… but it's futile" Shikamaru coldly stated. "Elite clans like the Hyugas aren't like us normal clans. They engage each other's children at a very young age or even before they're born in what is called an 'arranged matrimony', that way they ensure that their descendants are going to have what they think is the purest blood possible" he then explained. "Though that's probably not the case with Hinata any longer 'cause her father disinherited her long ago… Anyway, the likes of you are _never_ gonna be accepted as part of an elite clan, so you can forget about Hinata and look for a girl more at your level"

"I'll take her away from that filthy Hyuga clan! I'll take her away from this village if necessary!" Shidomaru shouted…

"And what are you gonna do for a living? How do you plan to keep both if your stomachs filled? Not to mention any children you may end up having" Shikamaru answered…

"The Village Hidden in the Sand would pay the big bucks for an ice-producing ninja!" Shidomaru replied…

"That may happen if you're lucky and they decide to trust you… But the Sand Village is an ally of ours and as soon as they see Hinata they'll bring her back to us. Both of your plans have major flaws" Shikamaru answered. Shidomaru didn't know what to say next…

"Does it matter? Shidomaru-san _loves_ Hinata-sama!" Kirara shouted. "Money doesn't matter! As long as their love is pure and true, they'll be happy! _Love can do everything!_" Kirara's statements made Shidomaru's face sadden and blush…

"Oh! How romantic! I'm blushing!" Shikamaru answered with sarcasm to Kirara, as he was obviously not blushing at all. "Well, you're a young girl in love, so I can't pretend you know everything about the world. Isn't that right, Kirara Itoshiki?"

"Y-You know me?" the surprised Kirara exclaimed…

"Kirara of the Itoshiki clan: The kunoichis of your clan are specialized in supporting jutsu that can greatly boost the strength, defense, speed and even healing of any ally units, making them valuable and highly wanted in four-man squads" Shikamaru explained. "That's why I also caught you in my shadow, to make sure you wouldn't use your techniques to support your popsicle-making friend"

Both Shidomaru and Kirara were speechless, and their situation seemed hopeless…

"_Don't give up, Popsicles!_" Naruto suddenly shouted as he struggled with Choji, making Shidomaru wake up…

"Don't listen to what Shikamaru is saying, Shidomaru-san! He's just trying to make you doubt!" Sakura shouted while struggling with Ino. After that, Shidomaru looked around some more. Only half an hour was left before dawn…

"_Naruto! Sakura!_ These guys are just trying to stall us! Forget about the reflectors and attack Shikamaru directly!" Shidomaru screamed at the top capacity of his lungs. Naruto tried to obey the order, but Choji jumped into his way…

"Easier said than done! Believe it!" Naruto shouted…

"Listen! These weaklings are no match for you!" Shidomaru shouted…

"I _never_ said I wouldn't do it!" Naruto shouted. "_Kagebunshin no Jutsu!_" he said and created a clone with which he started to prepare his Rasengan. "Sorry, Choji. Nothing personal… _Rasengan!_" and Naruto dispatched Choji …

"_Choji!_" Shikamaru screamed. Ino wasn't faring vary well against Sakura either…

"Why? _Why_ can't I just… like… surpass you?" Ino complained…

"You've got to understand, Ino… A ninja must be strong regardless of gender… sometimes even if it means totally relinquishing your beauty…" Sakura explained. "Train hard for our next battle! _Shannaro!_" she then shouted, and defeated Ino. Now only Shikamaru remained…

"Let go of them now, Shikamaru!" said Naruto while pointing at Shikamaru with a kunai…

"Fine" Shikamaru answered calmly as he released the shadows of Shidomaru and Kirara…

"Good… Now let's go!" Naruto exclaimed as he started to run…

"Baka! Stop!" Shidomaru shouted as he threw an ice kunai right in front of Naruto's feet, detonating what seemed to be a land mine before Naruto stepped on it, so Naruto was only scared and fell backwards to the floor, landing on his butt…

"It's full of traps…" Sakura commented…

"He said he had a backup plan if his stalling failed…" said Shidomaru…

"That's right" said Shikamaru as he stood up and stretched his limbs. He then made a big yawn. "In fact, all exits from this sector are riddled with traps except the way you came from. In order to reach the Hyuga mansion, you'd have to make a lot of rounding, which means you'll go a longer way, fight more enemies and get more tired and easier to capture. Also notice that not all traps are explosive, so you can't just destroy them all by attacking them."

"Let me guess…" said Shidomaru as he made a hand sign. Hundreds of invisible wires started to become visible as they became covered in frost. Not only were a lot of them in front of Shikamaru and above him (in case of an aerial attack), but many were around the area and even in unexpected places like right beside Shidomaru and Kirara…

"Yeah, that's _some_ of 'em" Shikamaru admitted "Though many are just wires" then he demonstrated it by tripping one on purpose to reveal nothing happened. "Other traps require an activation order on my part" Shikamaru then performed a hand sign and kunai rained on Shidomaru and the others, forcing them all to jump back…

"_Shannaro!_ That's fuckin' dangerous, Shikamaru!" Sakura screamed in comical anger…

"…And since you've stepped back right into the place where I wanted you to be, let me show you my favorite trap out of all of these" Shikamaru said before crouching down and moving away some dirt on the floor to reveal a hidden fuse. He then took out a lighter from his pocket and used it to light the fuse. It very quickly burned all the way to where the group was standing, and a tall circle of fire lit around the four of them. They were terrified…

"Your power… It is all based around ice and cold, since you come from a cold region. Therefore, hot environmental conditions are not good for you. Your ice jutsu is powerless in the inferno I've just caught you in" Shikamaru explained to his sweating, dehydrating victims…

"Damn ponytail mothafucker! …He thought of every detail!" Shidomaru recognized, quickly becoming tired from the heat. Kirara suddenly fainted, so Shidomaru caught her. "Kirara-chan!" he screamed…

"At this pace, we're gonna die of dehydration!" Sakura exclaimed…

"That's right… So, Popsicles, or whatever your name is… Before you're burnt to a crisp, let me tell you something… The opponents you've been facing up to now were chunin, or middle-ranked ninjas. That includes me… Well, maybe it's better for your fight to end like this. If you get past me, even worse things await you…" Shikamaru said…

"Like what?" Shidomaru defiantly asked, not believing Shikamaru…

"You're going to the Hyuga house, right? …Neji is there…" Shikamaru answered…

"That bastard!" the surprised Shidomaru thought to himself…

"Neji is a jounin, a high-ranked ninja. Even if you get past me, you'll have to face him. Do you still want to go there?" Shikamaru asked…

"_Shut the fuck up!_" Naruto interrupted before Shidomaru could answer. "Popsicles has already made his decision and he's not listening to you! Believe it!"

"It's not my problem if he ignores my advice. It's just my opinion." Shikamaru calmly answered…

"Well, here's my opinion!" Naruto shouted and then pointed at Shikamaru with the finger. "You get us out of this fire and let us rescue Hinata, or I'll kick your sorry ass! Believe it!"

"Kick my sorry ass, genius!" Shikamaru answered. "That is, if you can successfully avoid all of the traps between you and me…"

"_Just who told you I was going to avoid them!_" Naruto screamed violently, he then rushed towards Shikamaru, not minding running nonstop through the wall of fire and getting burned…

"_Naruto!_" Sakura screamed hysterically. Meanwhile Naruto was running in a straight line towards Shikamaru…

"_What?_ That's crazy! Naruto's gonna kill himself!" the shocked Shikamaru thought to himself. In fact, Naruto tripped each and every trap, endured strong explosions, received lots of hits from various ninja weapons that got buried into his burned flesh, but in spite of the gruesome torture and insufferable pain Naruto never slowed down and in fact he moved even faster the more wounded he was…

Sakura was so afflicted by the horrible things Naruto was going through that she covered her face, not withstanding to see this scene. Having received a wound from the last trap in his way, Naruto reached a terrified Shikamaru and punched him in the face full-force…

"That's the _only_ thing I expected from you the whole time, Naruto… to be completely unpredictable" Shikamaru thought to himself as he fell in slow-motion, before hitting the ground and losing conscience…

"_Narutoooooo!_" Sakura screamed. Shidomaru then performed a hand sign and lowered the temperature around them, which helped to reduce the fire enough to minimize the damage they'd receive as they ran through it, Shidomaru carrying the fainted Kirara in his arms. Naruto was, amazingly, still standing. His blood-covered body gruesomely wounded and burned, with lots of ninja weapons still buried into his flesh. Sakura and the others reached him, but Naruto was still looking forward…

"I… must… save… my friend… Hinata…" Naruto muttered as he still tried to walk forward, leaving behind bloody footsteps. He was enduring grueling pain, yet he slowly moved forward refusing to let his wounds deter him…

"Just _what_ is this guy?" a terrified Shidomaru thought to himself. "If someone sliced his head off, his body would just keep fighting as if nothing had happened! What a terrifying monster Naruto Uzumaki is… I _hate_ people like him"

Sakura then started to cry, and the next thing she did was trying to hold Naruto off. "Naruto! Please _stop!_" Sakura cried…

But Naruto still wanted to go rescue Hinata, so much that he even pulled Sakura a couple of centimeters despite his grievous wounds. But he finally collapsed, with Sakura crying over him…

"Don't try to stop me, Sakura…" Naruto said as he started to crawl along the floor, even with the crying Sakura over him, leaving a bloody trail similar to that of a slug. "I must… fulfill… my promise…"

When Shidomaru heard that, he remembered the moment Naruto had said to him "I promise I'll reunite you and Hinata! Believe it!" After remembering that, Shidomaru clenched his teeth, he then gently deposited the fainted Kirara on the floor before slowly walking up to Naruto and Sakura, suddenly delivering a furious kick to Naruto's abdomen…

"_You mothafucker!_ I think I told you that _I_ am the one who is going to rescue Hinata-chan!" Shidomaru furiously screamed with tears in his eyes. "I never asked you for help! You left poor Hinata-chan alone so you could be with Sakura, so _stay with your Sakura!_" Then Shidomaru continued running towards his destination alone…

As Sakura and Naruto sat up on the floor, the sad Naruto was holding back his tears. "It happened again… I wasn't able to live up to my promise… again…"

"What are you saying, Naruto?" Sakura cried. "Of course you did keep your promise!" Then the crying pink-haired girl hugged her beloved Naruto. "If you hadn't been here to help, Shidomaru-san would still be inside that circle of fire and would never have rescued Hinata" Sakura then started to caress Naruto's blonde hair. "The Hyuga house is near here. Thanks to what you did, Shidomaru-san will surely rescue Hinata… Just as you promised, you've reunited them, Naruto… I'm so proud of you…" Sakura then kissed Naruto on his lips and they both enjoyed a rather passionate kiss…

"Oh, Sakura-chan…" Naruto said, unimpressed, as if they had already kissed a thousand times by now…

The Hyuga house was now visible in the distance, though not for Shidomaru's teary eyes. "It's better for you to stay behind now, Naruto Uzumaki…" he started to think to himself while running. "You've done enough for me. Besides, this is something I have to do alone… Thanks for everything… Thanks for caring about Hinata-chan so deeply, and… thanks for wanting to be… my friend…"

By that time, the sun had just started rising. Hinata's cell was opened and they took her out of it as the preparations for the execution were being carried out. Neji watched helplessly as Hinata was being taken to the execution platform by masked people of their own clan. Neji's eyes showed how afflicted he was…

"_Gatsuuga!_" A voice suddenly shouted as two figures burst through one of the walls surrounding the place, surprising everyone. "This execution is canceled!" Kiba shouted as he stood up together with Akamaru…

"_Kiba-kun!_" Hinata screamed…

The other Hyugas present prepared to fight, but they stopped when Neji himself stood up. "Please let me handle this" he said, then walked and stood in front of Kiba and Akamaru…

"_I won't let my teammate die!_" Kiba screamed…

"Sadly, that is not your decision" Neji stated with his eyes closed. "_Byakugan!_" he suddenly shouted as he opened them, activating his clan's Kekkei Genkai for the fight…

At the same time, Shidomaru was running straight towards the Hyuga mansion that he could see in the distance. However, he slowed down to a walk and eventually stopped. Shidomaru was terrified, since the one standing in front of him, separating him from the Hyuga mansion and from his beloved Hinata, was none other than Kakashi Hatake, known as Kakashi of the Sharingan…

"C´mon… You knew this moment would come around sooner or later…" Kakashi stated. The terrified Shidomaru took one step back. "Am I _really_ that terrifying? …Or maybe you're afraid of… _this_" said Kakashi before uncovering his famous Sharingan. It was that Sharingan eye that frightened Shidomaru to his very core…

"The eye… of _The Devil_…" Shidomaru muttered as he trembled out of fear…

"Have you met someone else with the Sharingan before?" Kakashi asked "Just curiosity" he added…

Shidomaru grinned slightly, still frightened. "Yeah… About two years ago, many months before the war… I once met this terrifying demon whose eyes tormented me in my nightmares… his name was… Sasuke Uchiha!"


	12. Forbidden

"You actually met Sasuke?" Kakashi asked…

"I never told this to anyone… Not even to Hinata-chan! …It wasn't a fight… It was more like a one-sided mayhem… The moment I had looked into his eyes, everything was over… I never ever saw him again, but his words never faded from my mind…" the terrified Shidomaru explained…

Then Shidomaru had a flashback in which he remembered Sasuke saying "Do you know why you can't kill me? It's because your hatred isn't strong enough, therefore _you_'re not strong enough… If you really desire to kill those people, hate them, loathe them… and survive in an unsightly way. Run and cling to life"

"…And so I did. I hated the people of my village and the Hyugas, I cultivated the desire to kill them in my heart." Shidomaru continued explaining. "The sudden war delayed my plans, though, and I thought it'd all be wasted if my enemies died in the war rather than by my hands… kind of mysteriously, I felt happy thinking it could end up that way… But they survived and were in fact leading happy lives! ...So I jumped on the chance and killed my enemies, one by one. The Hyugas were going to be next, but… I'm not a fighter. I'm not the type who tirelessly struggles and insists until getting what I want, like Naruto Uzumaki or that guy Lee… In the bottom of my heart, I just wanted it all to end! I was tired of all this violence and blood! I just wanted… someone I could treat with affection… or rather, someone who would for once treat _me_ with affection… So, when I met Hinata-chan I could finally forget about my revenge… and about those unholy Sharingan eyes…"

Kakashi listened to every word in silence. Shidomaru then became enraged "_But you took her away from me! Why? I just wanted to kiss her and caress her and hug her! Why can't this fucking ninja village see that?_" he violently screamed…

"So, you love Hinata… Do you really think so?" Kakashi asked. Shidomaru stayed silent, so Kakashi didn't wait for an answer and was suddenly right in front of Shidomaru with a Chidori in hand. "Prove it…" Kakashi said and thrust the Chidori purposefully into a non-vital spot, making Shidomaru let out a horrible scream of pain. "I'll give you the chance to run away, Shidomaru of the Mist" Kakashi whispered in a sinister tone as he made close eye contact with the terrified Shidomaru. Kakashi then stopped and Shidomaru fell to the floor, wounded and utterly frightened…

"You know… Sasuke was my student" Kakashi commented, again in a relaxed attitude. "A rather smart student, indeed… Why don't you follow his advice? Why don't you run and cling to life?"

And Shidomaru was about to do just that. He was about to run away from an invincible enemy to save his own life, which would mean throwing away everything he had achieved up to now in the process. At the very same time, Kiba and Akamaru were taking a severe beating, courtesy of Neji Hyuga, in front of Hinata and every other Hyuga present at the execution platform…

"_Gatsuuga!_" Kiba shouted as he and Akamaru attacked Neji at the same time…

"_Kaiten!_" Neji shouted as he effortlessly repelled them both with his rotating defense…

"_Kiba-kun!_" Hinata screamed as both Kiba and Akamaru fell to the floor, already severely beaten. Akamaru lost his Juujin Bunshin transformation by this point, and couldn't get up to help Kiba any longer. However, with a lot of effort Kiba was able to stand up once more…

"I'm gonna… save Hinata…" Kiba mumbled as he struggled to keep himself standing…

"You can't save Hinata-sama" Neji coldly stated as he slowly walked towards Kiba. "No one can… It is the decision of Hiashi-sama, Hinata-sama's father and our leader, to put an end to his own daughter who dishonored us all… This is for the pride of the Hyuga clan"

But, despite his bad condition, Kiba just laughed at Neji's words, offending Neji…

"I knew you were a stuck-up asshole ever since the first time I met you…" Kiba muttered while glaring at Neji's eyes with a grin that showed all of his canine teeth. Neji became furious from Kiba's insult and shouted in rage as he delivered a devastating blow to Kiba…

"_Kiba-kuuuuuun!_" Hinata screamed as she started to cry. "Neji, please! Don't hurt Kiba-kun anymore!... _Please!_" and as she screamed hysterically for her cousin to stop, one of her tears fell from her face all the way to the ground. Just the moment the tear collided with the floor, the very same moment Shidomaru was about to run away, Hinata's scream was heard from as far as where Shidomaru and Kakashi were. Upon hearing it, Shidomaru stopped…

"What am I doing?" the shocked Shidomaru thought to himself as he remembered about Hinata, and after some seconds he turned around to face Kakashi…

"What's the matter? Won't you run away from me like last time?" Kakashi asked in a relaxed yet mocking tone. "I'm much stronger than you, so there's no chance you can beat me anyway. If you run away now, you'll live"

"Yes… If I run away, I _will_, indeed, live… If I run away I'll live a pointless life… a life without a purpose… Is there any difference between that and death?" Shidomaru answered…

"No, there isn't" Kakashi calmly answered. "Does that mean you're going to fight me in spite of having 0% chances to win?"

Shidomaru grinned "I'll find out that filthy eye's weakness somehow" he said with some confidence, right before starting to perform hand signs. However, Shidomaru soon noticed that Kakashi had already started performing the very same hand signs before even he did…

"Suiton: _Koori Senbon!_" Kakashi shouted as he bombarded Shidomaru with his own ice jutsu, knocking him to the ground. "You should say that _before_ looking into my eye…"

"It's… It's happening again…" the terrified Shidomaru muttered…

"Yeah, I guess a similar thing happened when you tried to attack Sasuke, didn't it?" Kakashi said calmly, but soon he found himself slightly surprised when he saw Shidomaru get up again, although with some difficulty…

Shidomaru then laughed in a low voice, with madness in his eyes. "It's impossible… Once the Devil's Eye has seen into your mind, it's impossible to escape… A shinobi with a Sharingan is an invincible enemy…" he then lifted his mad look to glare at Kakashi's eyes again. "But I have to do it… I must defeat you or poor innocent Hinata-chan will be killed for a crime she didn't commit, and everything I ever treasure in this world will die with her!"

"Talking is cheap… Can you really back those brave words up?" Kakashi answered. Shidomaru didn't reply and just waited, silently yet alert. However, Kakashi just disappeared in front of Shidomaru's eyes before he even realized it…

"Waiting for me to do the first move and counterattacking accordingly… is not going to work!" Kakashi said after appearing just behind the horrified Shidomaru. Then he kicked him in the back and knocked him into the ground again. As he lay on the floor, Shidomaru thought of Hinata, then got up again and tried to run, not towards the exit, but rather towards the Hyuga mansion, as if intending to bypass Kakashi. However, Kakashi quickly appeared in front of him and blocked his way…

"It's useless" Kakashi said to Shidomaru, who tried changing directions in a fruitless attempt to evade Kakashi and go on towards the Hyuga house. "I can predict your every move!" Kakashi exclaimed as he again kicked Shidomaru and knocked him into the ground yet again. "The only way for you to rescue Hinata Hyuga is by defeating me"

"She's… she's not one of those filthy Hyugas… Her name is Hinata-chan!" Shidomaru answered angrily as he was trying to get up…

"Oh, really?" Kakashi said, playing fool as he sometimes does. Shidomaru was still having troubles getting up…

"Hinata-chan is everything I have left… What the fuck am I going to do with my life if I lose her?" Shidomaru said…

"Well, perhaps there are other things you haven't yet discovered… Maybe your dream girl is waiting for you elsewhere" said Kakashi…

"_No! I want Hinata-chan! I love Hinata-chan!_" Shidomaru answered furiously…

Kakashi sighed. "Are you saying you would throw your life away just to rescue her?" he asked…

"Hinata-chan _is_ my life!" Shidomaru answered. "That's why I have to find your weakness even if it's the last thing I do!"

"Well, don't waste your time anymore… _I have no weaknesses_" Kakashi stated in a sinister tone, frightening Shidomaru…

"Impossible! _Everyone_ has a weak point!" the terrified Shidomaru answered…

"Do you know what a _balanced_ shinobi is? …That'd be me. Unlike Lee or you, who have put all of your effort into a specific area, I trained equally in all aspects. Strength, speed, intelligence, none of my attributes is much higher or much lower than the others. All of my qualities are perfectly balanced" Kakashi explained…

"Impossible… Can anyone do that? …And even if he did… How is it that he's this strong?" Shidomaru thought to himself, he then had a flashback of his battles with Shino, Lee and Shikamaru. "All of the previous opponents had one quality much more developed than the others… Indeed, in their own area of expertise, they were almost invincible… but they were weak when attacked in a field not their own" Then Shidomaru suddenly widened his eyes. "That's it! He's spent his efforts on equally raising all of his attributes! He couldn't have raised any of them too high! ...Trying to find his weakness is a waste of time, I guess…"

Shidomaru started performing hand signs. Kakashi widened his eyes in surprise. Shidomaru made one of his trademark evil grins, which looked even more evil with his pointed teeth and the gap where the upper right fang should be…

"You already know what I'm going to do… and that's ok, 'cause you won't be able to do anything about it!" Shidomaru exclaimed. "You're right. Looking for a weakness in you is a waste of my time. That's why I'll crush you with sheer power! Suiton: _Hyogabatsu!_"

Translated as 'Glacier Punishment', Shidomaru's jutsu caused huge icicles to rain down on the area. A jutsu with a big area of effect and great destructive power, it shook the ground, crushed buildings and destroyed everything within its reach as each iceberg landed with a very loud crash. That area of Konoha was left devastated, with a tired Shidomaru standing in the middle of the destruction…

"How about that? …you Sharingan mothafucker…" Shidomaru gasped. Indeed, Kakashi was nowhere to be seen, as if he had been crushed by the huge icicles. However, Shidomaru was quickly proven wrong when Kakashi's hands emerged from the ground below him and grabbed him by his ankles. "What the fuck…?" Shidomaru screamed…

Kakashi then pulled Shidomaru into the ground, leaving only his head sticking out. Then Kakashi emerged completely from underground in front of Shidomaru's eyes…

"The element of earth is strong against the element of water. See? I can find enemy weaknesses pretty quickly too!" Kakashi said as he faked a happy face. "Anyway… It's over" he then stated after reverting to a serious face again. However, Shidomaru struggled to get out…

"It's no use… Once the victim's caught in this jutsu, all that's left to do is chopping his head off… You're trapped within the earth, so you can't perform hand signs, nor can you do anything" Kakashi said…

"_No! It can't end like this! I must save Hinata-chan!_" Shidomaru screamed hysterically as he struggled in vain to break free. Kakashi stared at him…

"You stated earlier that you're not a fighter like Naruto or Lee. You said that you don't insist and struggle until you get what you want… If what you were saying was true, then why do you still insist on rescuing Hinata?" Kakashi thought to himself…

"There's nothing you can do about Hinata's execution now that you're trapped. I advise you to give up" Kakashi said to Shidomaru, only to be spit in response. "You're quite a pig…" was Kakashi's rather calm reaction to Shidomaru's offense…

"You…" a crying but enraged Shidomaru muttered, then thought of Hinata. "Don't you dare say anything else about Hinata-chan… _or I'll kill you!_" he suddenly screamed, still looking at Kakashi's eyes.

Shidomaru's teary eyes were showing rage and impotence, but Kakashi was able to see something else. Since Kakashi was looking directly at Shidomaru's eyes with the Sharingan, he could see into Shidomaru's mind. It quickly became obvious to Kakashi that Shidomaru treasures Hinata, as his head was quickly flooded with images of Shidomaru's love for Hinata, generated by Kakashi's own psyche as he read Shidomaru's eyes with his Sharingan. Suddenly, Kakashi put his headband over his Sharingan eye again in order to stop reading his mind. Next thing he did was to grab Shidomaru by the neck and yank his whole body out from underground. It seemed as if Kakashi was ready to deliver the final blow to his victim as he held him hanging in the air. At that time, Yamato arrived…

"I see you didn't need my help, Kakashi-senpai" Yamato said as he walked towards Kakashi and stopped at about two steps away from him. "Shall we kill the enemy or are we going to incarcerate him?"

Kakashi's face was pointing down, so the expression of his only visible eye couldn't be seen by Shidomaru or Yamato. However, even under his mask Kakashi's lips could be seen as he muttered "Go…" just before suddenly releasing Shidomaru and turning on Yamato. Yamato blocked Kakashi's kunai with his own…

"Kakashi-senpai! What the f…?" said the surprised Yamato…

"Go, Shidomaru of the Hidden Mist!" Kakashi exclaimed to a surprised Shidomaru. "Go save the woman you love!"

Shidomaru was both surprised and moved. He nodded with the tears still in his eyes and proceeded to run towards the Hyuga house, now without any obstacles in his way. Back at the execution site, with Kiba lying defeated on the ground the execution ceremony had been resumed. Hinata was already into place to be executed, but a member of the secondary branch suddenly came running…

"An enemy is approaching fast!" he shouted, alerting everyone else around him…

"The enemy's here already?" a surprised Neji wondered…

Stung by curiosity, Hinata activated her Byakugan to see through the walls surrounding the house. Her surprised eyes filled with tears of joy as she saw none other than Shidomaru coming to save her. "Shidomaru-kun! Why are you here? …Did you… come to save me? …I… I didn't think you'd come this far just for me…" She thought to herself. "_Shidomaru-kuuuuun!_" she then screamed…

Shidomaru was able to clearly hear Hinata screaming his name as he was approaching the Hyuga house. "_Hinata-chaaaaaan!_" Shidomaru shouted back, making the crying Hinata smile…

"_Defend the mansion!_" One of the Hyuga clan shouted as the Hyugas in the place started to come out to confront Shidomaru…

As soon as he saw the Hyugas come out to stop him, Shidomaru performed many hand signs very fast. "Say hello to my li'l friend! Suiton: _Hyoryuudan no Jutsu!_" he shouted as he again performed a sub-zero version of one of the otherwise typical Hidden Mist jutsu. In this case, it was an ice version of the Water Dragon Jutsu, which somewhat resembled Toshiro Hitsugaya's Hyorinmaru. The huge dragon made of ice crashed into the defense lines, devastating and freezing everything in its path, taking out almost every enemy and destroying part of the wall surrounding the mansion. Only Neji, the executioners and a few people who were near the execution platform remained…

"Quick! Execute her now!" a Hyuga yelled to the executioners, but they were quickly hit by kunai made of ice. All of the people there except Hinata, Neji, Kiba and Akamaru was hit and rendered either unconscious or unable to fight…

"Heh… So, you came…" an annoyed Kiba said with a smile…

"Shidomaru-kun…" Hinata whispered as she smiled despite the tears on her face…

"You lowlife…" Neji grudgingly muttered between clenched teeth…

Among all of the frozen destruction, Shidomaru leisurely walked towards the execution platform, the frozen ground meaning no hindrance for him…

"Wait…" Kiba managed to mutter when Shidomaru was passing him by, getting Shidomaru's attention. "I can smell it. The running battles you've been through have been draining your chakra… In my left pocket… take a chakra pill… then you might have a chance of defeating Neji"

Indeed, there was no way for Shidomaru to get to Hinata to rescue her unless he took Neji out of the way. Shidomaru reluctantly crouched down beside Kiba, searched into the left pocket of his pants and took out a chakra pill. He then stood up again…

"I hate these things…" Shidomaru complained before eating the chakra pill. "Thank you, dog-boy"

"I've got a name, you know! It's Kiba Inuzuka…" Kiba said…

"My name is Shidomaru… And I'm sorry, but the one who's gonna marry Hinata-chan is _me_" Shidomaru answered…

"…Whatever" the annoyed Kiba sighed. "…as long as she's happy, I won't complain"

Being done with the preparations, Shidomaru stepped in to fight Neji…

"You've definitely got nerve to set foot into our grounds" said Neji as he shifted into his Juuken battle stance…

"I'll be taking Hinata-hime with me… far away from you inflated Hyuga bastards!" said Shidomaru, he then performed a hand sign and his chakra level suddenly raised sharply, partly thanks to the chakra pill Kiba gave him. Just his chakra alone was already freezing the ground he was standing on and the air around him…

"_Byakugan!_" Neji shouted as he activated his Kekkei Genkai again to look at Shidomaru's chakra net, which was overflowing with an icy blue chakra. "Just like the last time, he'll mainly rely on chakra-based techniques" Neji thought to himself and then smiled. "All I have to do is block all of his chakra points and it'll be all over…"

Suddenly, the whole area was blanketed in an extremely dense mist, clouding even the Byakugan's vision…

"That old trick won't work! _Kaiten!_" Neji shouted and started to spin. His technique moved the air and scattered the mist. However, as the mist cleared, Neji saw Shidomaru with his right arm stretched forward and his hand closed as if holding something…

"Materialize, Hyotsubame!" Shidomaru exclaimed in a way _very_ reminiscent to a zanpakutou release. The water in the air around his hand began to concentrate and condense, and eventually ended up forming a halberd-like weapon made of ice, similar in form to Serge's 'swallow' weapon in the videogame Chrono Cross. In fact, Hyotsubame translates as 'Ice Swallow'…

"You think you'll touch me with that?" Neji confidently mocked…

"No… _You_ won't touch me with Hyotsubame in my hands" Shidomaru said as he took his weapon with both hands and spun it around a bit before shifting into battle position…

"We shall see about that…" Neji said as he narrowed his eyes. After which he directly charged at Shidomaru, intending to finish the battle in just one attack. Shidomaru just waited until Neji attacked, and blocked his first strike with Hyotsubame. Neji continued to attack, but the ice halberd proved to be an effective defense and it allowed Shidomaru distance himself from Neji without getting hit by his Juuken…

"Do you understand it now?" Shidomaru asked mockingly…

"Yes… That ice halberd is an auxiliary measure to use against an opponent that would force you into melee. But you couldn't use it in our last battle because it takes time to completely form it. That's why you clouded my vision with your mist, so that I wasted my first attack chance in scattering it, buying you enough time to create your weapon. Am I right?" Neji replied…

"Good… Battles go faster without having to explain every jutsu you perform to your opponent" Shidomaru said…

"You are forgetting why you lost to me last time. If you think I am a melee combatant exclusively, you are grossly mistaken! _Hakke Kuushou!_" said Neji right before palm-thrusting and pushing air with tremendous force, using it as a long-range weapon. This time around, however, Shidomaru was able to dodge it easily. "There is more where that came from!" Neji exclaimed as he repeated the Hakke Kuushou multiple times. Shidomaru defended himself by spinning Hyotsubame at a high speed, blocking the air shots. "_What?_" said the surprised Neji…

"I've just thought I could block air projectiles by forming an air current. A long weapon like Hyotsubame is good for that" Shidomaru explained…

"I don't think it quite worked…" Neji answered with a gloating expression, as Hyotsubame was slightly cracked in many places…

"Yeah, I can't produce air currents strong enough to fully nullify your Hakke Kuushou by just spinning Hyotsubame. I was only able to minimize the damage… But…" Shidomaru explained right before performing a hand sign with his left hand while holding Hyotsubame in his right. More water from the air condensed and froze, repairing the cracks on Shidomaru's ice weapon. "…since Hyotsubame is basically made of water, and water is everywhere, even in the air around us, I can easily repair it at will. I'm a master of water style jutsu, remember?" Shidomaru concluded his explanation…

"Hmph… Pathetic. All I have to do is to keep attacking relentlessly and your defense will break. Then I shall finish you off" Neji stated with confidence…

"In that case I'll just have to strengthen my defenses… Suiton: _Yukibunshin no Jutsu!_" Shidomaru shouted as he performed a hand sign with only his left hand, producing numerous snow clones, each with their copy of Hyotsubame…

Neji couldn't help laughing at the Yukibunshin. "That's even more pathetic! Your Yukibunshin are made out of snow, so they don't radiate body heat. It's quite easy with my Byakugan to tell the real you from your clones!" he exclaimed…

"Well, Yukibunshin no Jutsu can be used in many more ways than just a diversion or substitution technique…" Shidomaru replied…

"Don't be insolent!" Neji shouted as he suddenly charged forward at a blinding speed, bypassing all of the surprised snow clones before they even realized it. The real Shidomaru was barely able to block Neji's palm-thrust with Hyotsubame's blade…

"_What the…?_" the surprised Shidomaru exclaimed, but Neji just continued attacking. The snow clones of Shidomaru joined the fray from all directions, intending to stab Neji with their weapons…

"_Kaiten!_" Neji shouted as he destroyed them all with his spin attack, but Shidomaru used this chance to jump further away from Neji…

"Suiton: _Yukidama Bunshin!_" Shidomaru shouted, creating more snow clones. These clones instead took the offensive and charged at Neji…

"_Kaiten!_" Neji shouted again and spun. All clones that made contact with Neji's defense exploded violently, freezing the terrain around Neji. However, Neji himself remained unscathed. "It doesn't matter what you shoot at me! I'll block it! Unlike yours, my defense is perfect!"

"Yeah, that's what I've been told… Suiton: _Koori no Uzu!_" Shidomaru shouted, releasing his giant ice vortex on Neji. Neji just used Kaiten again and deflected all of the ice and snow, scattering it all around the battlefield…

"It looks as if it was snowing… It's so beautiful" Hinata thought to herself as she watched the deflected snow fall from above, as it indeed looked as if they were having snowy weather…

"Again! _Koori no Uzu!_" Shidomaru shouted as he repeated his last move, which Neji blocked again, scattering more ice and snow all over the place and even into the sky…

"Hey… All of a sudden it's freezing here… Don't you think, Akamaru?" Kiba commented, to which Akamaru answered with a noise…

"The temperature is dropping… In fact, the whole place is gradually freezing" Hinata thought to herself as she noticed the changes in the battlefield…

"_Koori no Uzu!_" Shidomaru shouted again when launching a third ice vortex _before_ Neji had finished his last Kaiten. However, Neji interrupted his own technique and chose to dodge the massive snow vortex…

"I know what you're trying to do!" Neji shouted as he charged towards Shidomaru. But this time, Shidomaru dodged his attack easily. Neji intended to continue attacking, but the slippery iced floor didn't let him balance his movements well. Shidomaru, on the other hand, moved on the ice like it was normal ground to him, easily distancing himself from Neji again…

"I come from the Land of Water. Unlike here in the Land of Fire, it snows a lot in my country during winter. Sometimes it would seem that the snow will keep on falling forever" Shidomaru explained…

"Transforming the terrain to your advantage, huh?" said Neji. "Not bad for a dirty lowlife"

"Hmph… Even though I already found the weakness of your so-perfect defense, I still had to do something about that bothersome speed of yours… Hopefully this should do" Shidomaru said…

"A weakness in my Kaiten defense? Don't be ridiculous!" Neji said while trying to hold back his laugh…

"You can stop pretending now. I _know_ you can't spin forever. It's not only tiring, but also consumes your chakra continuously to sustain your defense. When your limit is reached, you need to stop spinning for a very short while before you can use Kaiten again" Shidomaru explained…

"Did you learn that information by deceiving Hinata-sama into telling you?" Neji mockingly asked…

"No. I learned it while fighting you in our previous battle" Shidomaru answered before having a quick flashback of his last battle with Neji where he shoot various ice attacks that Neji repelled with his Kaiten. "None of the Hyuga fighting style's weaknesses was ever told to me by Hinata-chan. I don't count her as a filthy Hyuga in the first place. The one who showed me the weaknesses of your clan's style… it was you" Shidomaru said as he pointed with his finger at Neji…

"I see… Pretty impressive analysis capabilities! I apologize for underestimating you, Shidomaru of the Village Hidden in the Mist. As a token of my appreciation, I shall stop playing around and show you my true power…" said Neji before changing his battle stance. "…This time, I am going to fight seriously. No more games" he added, and before Shidomaru realized it, Neji had already reached him…

"Hakke…_ Hasangeki!_" Neji shouted as he launched a palm thrust with hundreds of times more chakra than what a Juuken palm thrust usually has. A huge burst of chakra came out from his palm as a result, which the horrified Shidomaru wasn't able to completely dodge, taking damage although he evaded direct hit. As Neji tried to attack Shidomaru with more palm thrusts, Shidomaru tried to slice Neji with the blade of Hyotsubame, but Neji ultimately shattered the blade by hitting it on its side. Shidomaru discarded the broken Hyotsubame and made a huge leap backwards so as to take distance from Neji again…

"Fine! Then I'm saying the same thing to you!" Shidomaru exclaimed while still in the air. "No more games! Suiton: _Hyogabatsu!_" Shidomaru then performed various hand signs and sent numerous huge icicles to fall on Neji from above him…

"_What?_" the surprised Neji exclaimed as he witnessed so much ice directly coming to him. The area where Neji was standing (thankfully, Shidomaru had taken him relatively far from Hinata, Kiba and Akamaru by this point) was heavily bombarded and devastated by huge icebergs, with ground-shaking impacts and crushing power. The attack was so powerful that Hinata screamed and closed her eyes just from seeing it. Kiba was horrified…

"Damn… He didn't use this much power when he fought me back at the forest! How humiliating…" Kiba angrily thought to himself…

Shidomaru landed and stared at the cloud resulting from the ground-shaking impact of his falling icebergs. Once the area became clear, Shidomaru could see Neji getting up with minor wounds…

"It is not possible for you to contain so much power…" Neji said as he stood up among the icy debris. "You are a dangerous criminal…"

Shidomaru stayed silent and alert, waiting for Neji's next attack…

"I swear over the pride of my clan that I shall rid the world of your filthy presence!" Neji exclaimed…

"Heh! So typical of you Hyugas! You believe yourselves to be some kind of superior beings! That's why you're always looking down on people!" Shidomaru exclaimed in disgust. "Well, I've got some news for you guys! _You're the very same shit as everyone else!_ The _only_ superior being here is the beautiful and innocent woman that you were going to execute: _Hinata-chan!_" he violently added. That last claim made Hinata blush and turn her gaze away…

"Don't be so insolent! It's your fault that Hinata-sama was sentenced to death in the first place!" Neji furiously shouted…

"Ever since I heard of this execution, something has been bothering me…Why are you executing poor Hinata-chan?" Shidomaru asked seriously…

"You ask why?" Neji exclaimed incredulously…

"I am the criminal here, am I not? You said I deceived poor innocent Hinata-chan into trusting me so I could destroy your clan… If that's true, then why are you executing her? Shouldn't this supposedly be _my_ execution?" Shidomaru inquired…

"I'd be happy to have Hinata-sama and you swap places… Unfortunately, I am just an insignificant member of the secondary branch and not a direct descendant of our lord. I have neither voice nor vote on the main branch's decisions" Neji explained…

"You sound as if you wanted to save Hinata-chan too…" said Shidomaru…

"Of course not! Hinata-sama tainted the honor of our clan by deliberately setting a dangerous criminal free from our prison! That criminal is _you_!" Neji answered. "Hinata-sama can't be forgiven now and is therefore doomed… But I swore over my pride as a Hyuga that I'd _crush you_! That way, at least her unfair death shall be avenged!"

"B-But… Neji nii-san! I-I don't want to be avenged!" Hinata exclaimed. "Naruto-kun said it, don't you remember? Revenge only brings more revenge… Hatred only brings more hatred…"

"It's too late now, Hinata-sama" Neji lamented. "I cannot stop your imminent doom, but I can at least end the life of the scum that put you there!"

"Then _slaughter all of the people of your village! They_ put her on that execution platform! I let Hinata-chan come back to this stupid village because I thought they'd welcome her back with open arms, and _look at what happened!_" Shidomaru protested…

"Very funny" said Neji as he shifted into battle stance once more. "Can't you see what you have done? First of all, you trespassed illegally into our forest with the intention to destroy the Hyuga Clan! Secondly, you have seduced our lord's eldest daughter and heiress of the clan, presumably to use her against us in some way! Third, as you escaped prison, you hurt several members of the personnel! …And just to add insult to injury, you've now invaded our village and defeated most of our troops! If the person Hinata-sama released from prison isn't a dangerous criminal, I don't know what he is!"

"I can't deny the first point" Shidomaru answered as he performed a hand sign. "But I didn't seduce Hinata-sama. Rather, _she_ seduced _me_! Not only is her body absolutely perfect, but her most seducing aspect is her kind, warm, gentle soul! It is I who should denounce the Leaf Village for having their most beautiful kunoichi seduce me!"

"S-Shidomaru-kun… P-Please stop flattering me…" the blushing Hinata requested…

"…And about all of the hurt people, it was obvious what they were going to do to me if I didn't hurt them enough to render them harmless! That's a basic concept called self-defense! Add the fact that Hinata-chan was also targeted along with me and you get what's called _protecting a loved one_!" Shidomaru explained…

"Since when are Mist ninjas so pacifist?" Neji shouted as he charged at Shidomaru, who performed hand signs and blocked Neji's attack with an ice wall, which Neji shattered in one hit…

"I was also wrong about you Leaf ninjas! Not all of you are the warm kind people you claim to be! _Especially you fuckin' Hyugas!_" Shidomaru angrily answered as the shards of the broken ice were still falling, then he performed other hand signs…

"_Hakke Hasangeki!_" Neji shouted as he again launched his most powerful palm-thrust to Shidomaru…

"Suiton: _Koori no Uzu!_" Shidomaru shouted at the same time and released his lethal ice vortex at point-blank range. Both powerful jutsu collided and produced an explosion that sent both wounded combatants flying in opposite directions…

"Shidomaru-kun! Neji nii-san!" Hinata screamed, worried for both. Shidomaru landed just beside Hinata…

"Don't worry. I think I'm still alive, Hinata-chan…" Shidomaru said as he started to slowly get up. "I'm sorry, but I've gotta beat the crap out of that asshole supposed to be your cousin! I'll untie you after I'm finished. Can you wait a bit longer?"

Hinata nodded, although reluctantly and not looking at Shidomaru's eyes, as if there was something else that she couldn't say. At the same time, Neji slowly got up as well, starting to laugh…

"Are you telling me you have actually fallen in love with Hinata-sama? That's ridiculous!" Neji exclaimed. "Sure, Hinata-sama is indeed very beautiful, both in the outside and the inside… Yet that didn't deter the Village Hidden in the Clouds, among many others, from trying to get the Byakugan for themselves! Hinata-sama's beauty has never deterred her enemies from hurting her! How can you prove that you are any different from any other enemy ninja?"

"I guess I can't…" Shidomaru simply answered. Neji laughed at Shidomaru's answer…

"Do you see it now? Then why should we believe your lie about being in love with Hinata-sama?" Neji asked…

"I don't remember having ever asked you or your village to believe anything…" Shidomaru answered. "We're ninjas, after all. _Anything_ could be a ruse or a trap! Even the fact that you're executing Hinata-chan or the fact that I bothered to come _all_ the way here just to rescue her could be an elaborate lie to gain your trust and destroy your village from within! In fact, every other shinobi village envies the Leaf village! It's no wonder you guys have to be as distrustful as any other shinobi village…"

"So, you actually agree with me… Tell me your real intentions, then! Are you here for the Byakugan? Are you here to get revenge on the Hyuga clan? Or is the entire village your true target?" Neji questioned…

"My initial plan was revenge on the Hyuga clan exclusively…" Shidomaru answered…

"By obtaining the Byakugan? Or by marrying the lord's daughter and just plain taking control of the clan?" Neji kept on questioning…

"No, no. I was gonna just plain slaughter you all" Shidomaru admitted. "It was a supposed mission to get the Byakugan that almost killed me in the first place, so I never truly wanted to get the Byakugan… Rather, I wanted to destroy it so no one could have it!"

"So that was your goal all along…" Neji said…

"Nope! ...That was my goal until the day I met Hinata-chan. I couldn't understand why, but ever since I first laid eyes on her, I felt something I had never felt before in my entire life. All of a sudden, I had forgotten about the Byakugan's cold stare… The only thing I ever wanted during those days was to see that innocent, tender, kind girl happy." Shidomaru answered…

"Peh!... Did you get distracted from your mission? What a pathetic excuse of a shinobi!" Kiba exclaimed…

Shidomaru clenched his teeth and fists. "Yeah… Something like that's what my classmates used to call me because of my weak body…" Then he looked straight into Neji's eyes. "It's true… I can't prove you that I'm not going to hurt Hinata-chan… But at least I'll prove you that I want neither her Byakugan nor the control of the Hyuga clan"

"Oh? And how are you going to do that?" Neji incredulously inquired…

Shidomaru performed a hand sign "By defeating your Byakugan in battle to prove how useless it is to me, and then taking Hinata-chan far away from you so we can lead a quiet and happy life, just the two of us!"

"That won't happen" Neji stated as he once again shifted into his battle stance. "The princess of the Hyuga clan and a rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist? …That is _forbidden!_"


	13. Romance

About to reach the climax of their battle, both combatants prepared to clash once again. Neji was already charging at Shidomaru, and Shidomaru was already performing hand signs…

"Suiton: _Tsumetai Arashi!_" Shidomaru shouted as he cast a fierce blizzard upon Neji. But even though Neji was suffering the painful cold of Shidomaru's attacks and his body was starting to freeze, he still managed to reach Shidomaru…

"_Juuken!_" Neji shouted as he attacked Shidomaru, who seemingly dodged the full force of the attack and was just barely touched. Still, Shidomaru was feeling intense pain…

"Fuck!" Shidomaru protested…

"I missed…" Neji stated. "When I hit all of your chakra points, it all shall be over"

"He doesn't attack with physical strength, remember?" Shidomaru thought to himself. "It's his chakra emissions that I must look out for…"

Shidomaru then jumped backwards and performed more hand signs in mid-air. "_Eat this shit!_" Shidomaru screamed as he shot various big ice spikes at Neji, but Neji just used Shidomaru's jutsu to reach him by jumping on the projectiles, from one to the next. Shidomaru was horrified, but it was already too late…

"_Hasangeki!_" Neji shouted as he hit Shidomaru full-force. Hinata closed her eyes, almost feeling Shidomaru's pain as he crashed into the ground, sent flying downwards by the force of Neji's strongest attack. Although wounded, Neji landed square on his feet from the heights…

"So, you say the Byakugan is useless…" Neji said mockingly as he walked towards Shidomaru. "It's too bad you think that way. I think my kekkei genkai is indeed a formidable weapon. Otherwise there wouldn't be so many enemy ninjas trying to obtain it"

Shidomaru was still getting up when Neji started to run towards him and hit him with another Juuken palm-thrust…

"Shidomaru-kun!" Hinata screamed…

"You see… My kekkei genkai, the Byakugan, provides me with 360 degrees of vision, and also lets me see great distances and even through things… I can even see chakra itself, including the chakra points in your body! This lets me easily attack them with Juuken…" Neji gloated…

"So what? ...I don't need stupid X-Ray vision eyes to see through Hinata-chan's clothes or something!" Shidomaru retorted…

"I guess you _really_ didn't come to obtain the Byakugan after all" Neji said in a quiet anger. "If you knew anything about the Byakugan you wouldn't utter such nonsense!" he then suddenly shouted as he hit Shidomaru again, this time blocking a chakra point, which Hinata also noticed by watching with her own Byakugan…

"Shidomaru-kun! Please stop, Neji nii-san!" Hinata screamed as she started to cry again…

"…And about taking Hinata-sama away from us to live a quiet and happy life…_Don't be so arrogant!_" said Neji as he hit another chakra point in Shidomaru's chakra net. "What kind of life can a little low-class rogue such as you give to Hiashi-sama's daughter?"

"One much better than the miserable life she's currently having, crushed by the pressures of belonging to the main branch of a filthy elite clan…" Shidomaru defiantly muttered…

"That shall be your final insult to the Hyuga clan…" Neji sternly stated, he then shifted into the stance where the yin-yang appeared below himself and his opponent. "Hakke: _Rokujuu Yon Shou!_" Neji shouted and started a 64-hit combo, each hit precisely landing into one of Shidomaru's chakra points…

"_Shidomaru-kun!_" Hinata cried as she witnessed Shidomaru be rapidly pierced to death by Neji's jutsu. Horrified and unable to see any more people getting hurt, Hinata closed her eyes and turned her teary gaze away. The 64th hit of Neji's combo sent Shidomaru flying against the wall, from where he fell to the floor, seemingly dead as blood oozed from his mouth into the frozen ground…

"Fuck… Even he couldn't do it…" Kiba lamented…

"Stop… I can't stand this any longer! I don't wanna see any more people get hurt because of me! …First Kiba-kun… and now Shidomaru-kun too! Even Neji nii-san and the whole village! _I don't want to see everyone hurting each other because of me!_" the crying Hinata thought to herself as images of every shinobi wounded in the battle for her rescue crossed her mind and her tears rained on the ground below her sad eyes…

As for the dying Shidomaru, no matter how much he tried, his body wouldn't move. His sight was also fading to black as death was already coming to him. "It's useless… I can't move…" he thought to himself. "In the end, I wasn't able to do anything… It's over… everything's over… I'm going to die…" he then slowly closed his eyes, accepting his doom. "Maybe this is the best way for everything to end… for a failure of a shinobi and a criminal who murdered people…" He thought as he remembered the people of his village who despised him, as well as many other people that labeled him as a criminal and prosecuted him as such, including the people of Konoha. "…After all… _this world rejects me_"

However, just when Shidomaru was about to have his last breath, he somehow was able to hear Hinata's tears that fell from her eyes and collided with the ground below. That sound made him suddenly open his eyes…

"_Stooooooop!_" Hinata cried out loud to the sky, loud as she had never sounded before. "_Please, stop this madness! No more fighting! No more violence! I don't want the people of my village hurting each other because of me any longer!_"

It is unknown how, but Hinata's voice somehow echoed through the whole village and was heard by _all_ of its inhabitants. Or rather, it was her feelings that somehow were felt by everyone in the village. Sai heard it as he was drawing a rather exact representation of Hinata's current situation even though he wasn't there to actually see it, but he could somehow feel it. Izumo, Kotetsu, Anko and others whose wounds were being healed also heard it. Shino heard it too as he was still lying on the frozen battlefield where he lost to Shidomaru. Ten Ten heard it as she regained consciousness. Lee and Guy also heard it and stopped fighting each other. Both then looked in direction to the Hyuga house…

"Guy-sensei…!" Lee exclaimed…

"We have made a terrible mistake, Lee…" Guy stated seriously…

The members of team Ino-Shika-Cho who also regained consciousness and were recovering from their battle, with Shikamaru _still_ lying quite comfortably on the ground in the exact same place where Naruto knocked him, heard it as well…

"What a drag… I knew this would happen." Shikamaru thought to himself as he watched the clouds in the morning sky "What a waste this battle has been…"

Sakura and Naruto could also hear it as Sakura was still treating Naruto. "Hinata…" Naruto muttered as he tried to get up despite being still wounded…

"Don't move yet, Naruto!" Sakura exclaimed as she tried to hold Naruto down. At that time, Kirara regained consciousness and sat up…

"Hinata-sama is crying…" Kirara said. Then she stood up and started to walk towards the Hyuga mansion. "We can't waste time lying here…" she added. Being two votes against one, Sakura had no choice but to let Naruto get up and go along with him and Kirara towards the Hyuga mansion.

Meanwhile, Kakashi and Yamato also stopped their fight when they heard Hinata's screaming plea…

"Kakashi-senpai… What's happening in the Hyuga house?" a surprised Yamato asked…

"The truth is about to be revealed… _That_'s what's happening" Kakashi answered calmly…

Finally, Tsunade and Shizune were watching the whole time from the Hokage's office…

"Tsunade-sama…" said a worried Shizune…

"It's not only Hinata Hyuga… The Village Hidden in the Leaves itself is crying…" Tsunade said as she looked through the window at the disaster caused by the whole battle. After some seconds in silence, Tsunade suddenly turned around and angrily walked towards the exit. "Shizune! We're going to the Hyuga house!" Tsunade yelled to her scared assistant, who just squealed in fear and obeyed without questioning…

Meanwhile, back at the Hyuga house, where of course everyone heard Hinata's plea, everyone was left amazed. Most surprised of them all was Shidomaru himself…

"No… Not everyone rejects me…" Shidomaru suddenly thought to himself as he remembered Hinata. "Even after discovering who I am, Hinata-chan still opened her heart to me! Thanks to her, I had even given up on my revenge! …That's right… I gotta live! I gotta live even if for the _only_ person who has accepted me! …No… It wasn't only Hinata-chan who accepted me!"

Then Shidomaru remembered Kirara saying "Whenever we come here, let's play being a family! Shidomaru-san will be the dad, and Hinata-sama will be the mom… And I'll be the daughter!"

The next people Shidomaru remembered were both Naruto and Sakura. With Naruto saying "I promise I'll reunite you and Hinata! Believe it!" with a smile and a thumbs-up, and Sakura saying "That's right! Naruto and I are going to help you, Shidomaru-san"

Then he remembered Shino saying "Please… I beg you… _Save Hinata!_", Lee saying "Also save this village! Save the people of my village from themselves!", Kakashi saying "Go, Shidomaru of the Hidden Mist! Go save the woman you love!" and Kiba saying "In my left pocket… take a chakra pill… then you might have a chance of defeating Neji"

"Now that's a lot of people, isn't it?" Shidomaru thought to himself, he then surprised himself when he remembered Naruto at some point saying "Don't worry! After this is all over, you'll have a lot of friends! Believe it!"

"Of course… That would have never happened if not for Hinata-chan… I used to hate my life… I wanted to die… But now, I have something… No, rather… _someone_ to live for" Shidomaru thought. Then, he made a last effort and slowly started to get up, which surprised everyone around him…

"Shidomaru-kun!" the crying Hinata said with a smile…

"That's impossible! I hit all of his chakra points! He should be dead by now!" a surprised Neji exclaimed…

When Shidomaru was able to fully get up, he performed a hand sign. After watching him performing that same sign for a while, with the Byakugan active, both Neji and Hinata were horrified…

"What are you doing?" Neji exclaimed…

"That Juuken technique of yours… It's about inserting your chakra into my chakra net in order to stop chakra flow, isn't it? That means you don't destroy my chakra or absorb it, it is still there." Shidomaru explained. "It's like you throw a lot of shit down the toilet until the pipes get clogged… Now, suppose pressure was applied on the clogged pipe. One of two things can happen… One: the clog gets pushed and the water flows again, or Two: the pipe breaks and the water splashes everywhere!"

"No way! You're going to…?" the horrified Neji exclaimed…

"Yes, I am! This is my last resort!" Shidomaru exclaimed, he then started to shout as he concentrated…

"No! Don't do it, Shidomaru-kun!" Hinata screamed. "If you try to open a Chakra Gate with all of your chakra points blocked, you'll…"

But it was too late. Shidomaru opened the Chakra Gate and his chakra pressured on all of the blocked points. Since the chakra net is overlapped with the circulatory system, Shidomaru's blood jetted from the sixty-four little places where Neji had hit him and splashed everywhere as Shidomaru let out a loud and horrible scream in pain. Everyone soon noticed it was no ordinary blood, as it seemed to freeze everything it touched. Chakra was also leaking from the same points, forming a powerful freezing aura of chakra around Shidomaru…

"What _is_ this guy? His chakra and even his blood itself seem to be like ice!" an astonished Neji thought to himself…

In fact, Shidomaru's aura was so cold and so powerful that the otherwise sunny weather of the Village Hidden in the Leaves was overcast by black clouds. Not only the village and the forest surrounding it, but rather the whole region experienced an unnatural snowy weather. The snowfall soon became heavier and heavier…

"It's cold…" Hinata muttered with a shiver. In fact, everyone in the village was shivering from the cold and exhaling clouds of vapor, as they are used to hot weather…

"You can control the weather? What kind of monster are you?" a horrified Neji exclaimed. Shidomaru started to slowly walk towards him without saying a word, but his aura of chakra looked menacingly cold, to the point that everything in Shidomaru's path froze instantly. Neji tried to move, but found himself unable to do so. "My body is numb because of this cold…" He thought to himself…

"I had to forget about physical training in order to strengthen my chakra, as opposed to a taijutsu specialist… Because of this type of training, my chakra is dimensions beyond that of an average shinobi… When I open a Chakra Gate, I can reach minus 80 degrees, the temperature of Antarctica which is the coldest place in the world… If I were to open all eight gates, I would reach minus 273 degrees or Absolute Zero, the temperature at which _everything_ freezes, with no exception… Everything in a large radius, including myself, would be killed…" Shidomaru explained…

"Stop! Don't come closer! Go away!" a terrified Neji screamed as he felt colder and colder with each step Shidomaru walked towards him…

"…Of course, reaching such cold temperatures would require practically infinite amounts of chakra… They used to call Kisame Hoshigaki the Tailed Beast with no tail, but that was because his Samehada sword absorbed the opponent's chakra… The _real_ Tailed Beast with no tail… is _me_" Shidomaru revealed…

As Neji was becoming blue and starting to freeze because of the extreme cold, Shidomaru extended his hand towards him…

"If Shidomaru-kun touches him…" a horrified Hinata thought to herself. "_Shidomaru-kun!_" she then screamed, making Shidomaru stop. As Neji fainted from the cold, Shidomaru's cold aura disappeared and he stopped freezing everything around him, leaving Neji miraculously alive. However, Shidomaru was still severely weak from his wounds and the loss of blood, but he nevertheless turned around towards Hinata…

"Hinata-chan, my beloved… don't worry … I'm coming to rescue you" Shidomaru mumbled as he very slowly started to walk towards Hinata to finally set her free. However, well before Shidomaru had reached her, Hinata stuttered for a bit before yelling "D-Don't come, Shidomaru-kun! It's a trap!"

But it was already too late as four ANBU quickly seized Shidomaru. The rogue ninja from the Hidden Mist was finally captured and he wouldn't be able to escape this time…

"I have finally caught you in my grasp… Shidomaru of the Hidden Mist" a cold and emotionless voice sounded. The person who entered the scene was none other than Lord Hiashi Hyuga himself, slowly but steadily walking towards the captured Shidomaru. All of the people from the Hidden Leaf village were also starting to arrive, including practically everyone in the cast of this fanfic. Hiashi was now standing right in front of Shidomaru. The Mist shinobi raised his head to look at Hiashi's Byakugan eyes…

"We meet again, huh?" Shidomaru said…

"Have we met somewhere before? I cannot seem to remember your ugly face…" Hiashi answered…

"The warehouse that burned down seven years ago… right after you bastards beat me to a bloody pulp…" Shidomaru explained…

"What an irony…" Hiashi stated as he narrowed his eyes. "To think you would survive only to end up at my mercy yet again"

"Set Hinata-chan free…" Shidomaru ordered…

"Are you still worried about my disgrace of a daughter? If that is the case, you shall not need to worry anymore…" Hiashi answered…

"If you do anything bad to her… I'll kill you" Shidomaru threatened only to get slapped by the back of Hiashi's hand in response…

"Idiot! Did you really think I was such a monster to kill my own daughter?" said Hiashi. "This execution was only a ruse to bring you here so we could capture you!"

Not only Shidomaru, but everyone around Hiashi, which would be almost the whole Leaf Village, was horrified to learn the truth…

"T-That can't be!" a worried Kirara said…

"_What_ did he just say?" an enraged Naruto growled…

"How dare he?" an offended Sakura exclaimed…

"I apologize to you all for the troubles I have caused to you!" Hiashi spoke to the masses. "To fool your enemy, you must first fool your friend! I shall take the responsibility to compensate you all after we are done with this lowlife!"

"So it _is_ my execution after all…" Shidomaru said to Hiashi…

"That is correct" Hiashi answered…

"That's good… Then Hinata-chan is going to live…" Shidomaru said as he closed his eyes and relaxed. Then he raised his head again to look at Hiashi's eyes again "Listen. I haven't come for the Byakugan… and I don't want to take control of your clan by marrying your daughter…"

"I know… I knew it all along" Hiashi coldly stated, leaving Shidomaru horrified…

"Then why?" the horrified Shidomaru asked…

"Because _Hinata is my daughter!_" Hiashi exclaimed. "She may be a weakling and a disgrace to our clan but she is still my daughter! As her father, I have the final word on who is going to get engaged to her!"

"_For real?_ ...Like, this is all just because of some jealous father?" Ino protested…

"I told you, didn't I? …Elite clans are very careful when it comes to bloodlines…" a rather unsurprised Shikamaru said…

"But it's still aggravating, Shikamaru!" Choji answered…

"After the disappearance of the Uchiha clan, we the Hyuga clan have become the highest-class family of this village! In order to maintain our bloodline as high and pure as possible, only the best shinobis can marry one of our clan!" Hiashi continued…

"But… Where's love in that?" Lee asked…

"It's just what I said to him earlier, Lee. Each generation of warriors must be stronger than the previous" Ten Ten answered. "But even so, going so far as to do _this_…" she added…

"_Inconceivable!_" Guy screamed passionately while posing and crying rivers of tears. "Every man needs love in his life!"

"I see… I understand it now" Shidomaru said to Hiashi…

"Did you finally understand it?" Hiashi asked with confidence, already tasting his victory…

"Yeah… I see you treat your daughter _like a dog_!" Shidomaru answered, offending Hiashi. "What you're talking about is not called marriage! It's called _selective inbreeding_! That's how different dog races originated!"

Kiba sat up on the floor as Akamaru got up "Heh! …The ice dude hit right on the mark! Didn't he, Akamaru?" Kiba said to his dog, who answered with a bark…

Shidomaru got slapped by the back of Hiashi's other hand. "We are an elite clan! Of course we undergo a process of selective inbreeding! It is thanks to it that we have produced some of the best ninjas of this village!" Hiashi angrily exclaimed…

"Indeed, Lord Hiashi Hyuga has a point… It's very important that every new ninja can be the best he or she can possibly be… But that doesn't mean that something like love can be rationalized" Shino thought to himself…

"That's how the shinobi world works. Isn't that true, Kakashi-senpai?" Yamato commented…

"A shinobi is a weapon, a tool of war. There's no space for feelings in a shinobi's mind and heart… However, no matter how much we try to deny and suppress our humanity, we are human beings with souls of our own" Kakashi answered…

"Just as I thought… Then Hinata-chan _can't_ be one of you…" Shidomaru stated…

"_What?_" said an even further offended Hiashi…

"…It's my guess you've been undergoing selective inbreeding for many generations now… All of the ninjas produced by the Hyuga clan should be as insensitive and merciless as you… but Hinata-chan is just the opposite of a Hyuga. She's kind, tender, sweet, compassionate…" Shidomaru continued speaking until Hiashi hit his stomach with his Juuken, causing him to cough up blood…

"Listen well, scum… My very twin brother sacrificed himself to protect our precious blood and Kekkei Genkai from the likes of you… If that filthy blood you have just spewed got mixed with ours, then my dear brother's efforts would be wasted…" Hiashi said to Shidomaru. "That's why I shall _never_ let you into the Hyuga clan! You shall not taint our blood! Nor shall you have the Byakugan! It shall only happen _over my dead body!_" he then shouted in a sudden rage. "The union between you and my daughter is a _forbidden romance!_ That _must never_ happen!"

However, the effect that Hiashi got was not the desired one. All of a sudden, he found himself surprised as the multitude that had gathered around the Hyuga house was starting to boo him…

"Injustice!" Kirara shouted. "Hinata-sama and Shidomaru-san were made for each other!"

"Just let them be together, you asshole!" Naruto shouted…

"Hiashi Hyuga is a tyrant!" Sakura shouted…

"Love's enemy!" Ino shouted…

"Unforgivable!" Choji shouted…

"Don't deprive Hinata-san and Shidomaru-kun of their youth!" Lee shouted passionately as he cried rivers of tears…

"Well shouted, Lee! _Youth rules!_" Guy shouted, also very passionately and crying rivers of tears…

Hiashi was horrified. All of a sudden, the whole Village Hidden in the Leaves was supporting the romance he had been trying to forbid all this time…

"That's enough, Hiashi-sama…" Neji muttered as he somehow was managing to get up despite being seriously damaged by the cold that Shidomaru had produced earlier. "Please, don't use my father as a justification for your recent acts…"

"Neji… Not you too!" a surprised Hiashi exclaimed…

"This person by the name of Shidomaru… Yes, he may be a low scum. He may be at the bottom of social hierarchy… But… he faced against an entire village only to try to save Hinata-sama's life… He didn't mind if he had to sacrifice himself in order to do so, as his last jutsu also affected his own body" Neji explained. Hiashi then looked closely and noticed that, indeed, the extreme cold affected Shidomaru's body as well, since even for an inhabitant of a cold land a temperature of minus 80 degrees is too much cold. "He risked it all for Hinata-sama's life… while I, trapped between my loyalty to the Hyuga clan and my love for Hinata-sama, wasn't able to make the right choice… So please, Hiashi-sama… I beg you to stop this madness!" Neji added…

The shocked Hiashi didn't know what to say to his nephew Neji, the son of the very man who sacrificed his life for him years ago…

"F-Father…" Hinata timidly whispered, though mysteriously she was still able to catch her father's attention despite the noise from the angry crowd. "I… I was also distrustful of Shidomaru-kun at first… but… H-He not only comforted me when I was sad… As Neji nii-san said, he struggled against a whole village just to save me. Shidomaru-kun risked his life for me! ...Father, I… I-_I love Shidomaru-kun!_"

When Shidomaru heard Hinata say that, he couldn't believe his own ears. He had already stated that he loved Hinata countless times, but this was the very first time that Hinata explicitly stated that she loved Shidomaru. Hinata's revelation also surprised Hiashi, as well as angered him…

"Hinata, I forbid you to…!" Hiashi exclaimed in anger…

"_That's quite enough, Hiashi!_" Tsunade's voice shouted from the distance, interrupting Hiashi. The whole crowd shut up and then people stepped aside to open a path for Tsunade, who entered the central scene escorted by Shizune…

"You have arrived just in the nick of time, Hokage-sama! The whole village seems to have gone crazy! All of a sudden, everyone seems to want me to let my daughter get engaged to some… criminal!" Hiashi said to Tsunade…

"Hiashi Hyuga… There's only _one_ reason why I gave you permission to carry out your little plan…" Tsunade answered…

"What was it, Hokage-sama?" Hiashi asked…

"I've had my eyes on the battles that have been happening here all along, thanks to the seeds I ordered Yamato to plant on Naruto and the others' clothes" Tsunade started to explain. Naruto and Sakura started searching their clothes and each found one seed…

"Just _when_ did Captain Yamato put this here?" the puzzled Naruto wondered, not aware that it was when Sai tied him, Sakura and Shidomaru with the ink snakes…

"As the shadow who watches over this village, I have seen _everything_ that Shidomaru, Naruto and Sakura have been doing up to now! And you, loyal shinobis of the Hidden Leaf who have bravely fought against them, have directly witnessed their actions!" Tsunade continued explaining. "And I can see that many of you have already reached a conclusion" she added, to which Kiba, Shino, Lee, Shikamaru and Kakashi all nodded…

"Then you most certainly are aware of it, Hokage-sama. This dangerous criminal named Shidomaru is a threat to the Hyuga clan as well as the Village Hidden in the Leaves in its entirety!" Hiashi exclaimed…

"Ahem! …Furthermore… I, Tsunade Senju, as the Fifth Hokage and the judge of this trial, with all of the Hidden Leaf shinobis as witnesses and jury, have reached a verdict!" Tsunade proclaimed out loud to all of her people. Seconds of silence and suspense filled the entire village as everyone got worried except Hiashi, who overconfidently smiled thinking he had already won…

"Hiashi Hyuga!" Tsunade then exclaimed, surprising everyone around her, but especially shocking Hiashi himself. "I sentence you to accept Shidomaru of the Village Hidden in the Mist as a member of your clan and to engage him to your elder daughter Hinata Hyuga!"

"_Allright!_" Naruto shouted out loud. Then the whole crowd started to celebrate. Hinata blushed and smiled at a shocked Shidomaru. Our young Hidden Mist shinobi believed he was in a dream…

"B-But… Hokage-sama! Are you trying to bring the Hyuga clan to its downfall?" Hiashi furiously protested…

"_Open your eyes!_" Tsunade shouted louder than Hiashi. "Shidomaru's abilities are good enough to contend against Jounin-level ninjas! On top of that, he put _everything_ he had for the sake of protecting your daughter Hinata! Can you ask for a better fiancé for her?" and with that argument, Hiashi had no other choice but to shut up…

"Untie Hinata! _Now!_" Tsunade ordered. A random chunin came from behind Hinata and cut the ropes restraining her, setting her free…

"Shidomaru-kun!" Hinata exclaimed happily as she ran to hug Shidomaru, who the four ANBU dropped into her arms. Hinata and Shidomaru hugged each other with all of their affection put into it…

"Hinata-sama looks so happy…" Kirara said as she shed tears of joy…

"We too, Sakura-chan!" Naruto exclaimed as he tried to hug Sakura, only to get punched and sent against a wall again…

"Beware where you put those hands, you perv! _Shannaro!_" Sakura exclaimed angrily…

"Shidomaru of the Village Hidden in the Mist!" Tsunade shouted next, making everyone shut up and listen. She then pointed at Shidomaru with her index finger. "For your misdeeds, I sentence you to work for the Village Hidden in the Leaves for the rest of your life! You will put everything you've got to protect this village and its people!"

"Uh…" Shidomaru said, about to object…

"_No objections allowed!_" Tsunade shouted to make Shidomaru shut up. She then calmed down and smiled. "Welcome to our lines, Shidomaru of the Hidden Leaf Village"

Tsunade's recent decision only made Hinata happier as she blushed and smiled to the puzzled Shidomaru. The rest of the village also celebrated, save for Hiashi…

"What a drag… I'll now have to design strategies to make use of Popsicles's ice abilities" Shikamaru complained as he rubbed the back of his head with his hand…

Everyone shut up as Tsunade was about to speak again "I also sentence you to make your fiancée Hinata Hyuga happy _every day of her life_! For each day she is unhappy with you, you shall pay a visit to Ibiki!"

The worried Shidomaru then looked at Ibiki, who waved a hello with an evil smirk on his face…

Shidomaru then made another one of his evil grins "Sorry, Torturer-san… I think we're never going to see each other again"

And the crowd celebrated as Shidomaru and Hinata hugged each other again. Then both of them came face to face…

"Um… S-Shidomaru-kun… I…" the blushing Hinata whispered as she avoided looking at Shidomaru's eyes…

"I've gotta tell you something, Hinata-chan…" a blushing Shidomaru said to Hinata, looking directly into her white eyes. She gasped and quickly looked at Shidomaru's eyes as well "Believe it or not, this is my first time… I know it should be perfect, but…" Shidomaru said rather nervously…

"Shidomaru-kun… J-Just be yourself" Hinata answered. And then, with the whole village of Konoha as their witnesses, the newly-engaged Shidomaru and Hinata passionately shared their first kiss…

…_**The end.**_

Thanks to **Kirara Itoshiki** (my friend on whom the homonymous original character is based) for giving me hopes that the beautiful Hinata-chan could be able to love me.

Thanks to **in your dreams as well** for convincing me to write this story.

Thanks to **Lies** for appreciating my talent that I didn't appreciate myself. That gave me much of the push needed to start writing this fanfic.

Thanks to **PenanceGirl** for supporting me. Also for reassuring me when I was not sure if my fanfic was good or not.

Thanks to **Gaara of the Desert (a.k.a. the Fifth Kazekage)** for appearing in my dream while I was asleep just for the sole purpose of giving me inspiration! (No joke! O_O)

Thanks to **you** for reading my fanfic through to the end ;)

And most importantly, thanks to **Hinata Hyuga** for being the kindest and sweetest ninja girl in the whole universe! _I love you, Hinata-chan!_


End file.
